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THE CREED OF CHRIST 



THE CREED OF 
CHRIST 

A Study in the Gospels 
Rev. Richard Venabie Lancaster 



♦ 



RICHMOND, VIRGINIA 

The Presbyterian Committee of Publication 



NOV 8 1995 






:\ 






V 



*> 



Copyrighted 

by 

R. E. MAGILL, Secretary of Publication, 

1905. 



The quotations and footnotes in this book taken from the 
American Standard Revised Bible, copyright 1901, by 
Thomas Nelson & Sons, are used by permission of the pub- 
lishers. 



Printed by 

Whittet & Shepperson, 

Richmond, Va. 



TO THE MEMORY 

OF 

flD£ /iDotber, 

WHO, BEING A WIDOW, 

FILLED A MOTHER'S AND A FATHER'S PLACE 

TO ME. 



PREFACE. 

The Chinese have a beautiful custom. On 
their mountain roads, at important turns in the 
way, or near the hardest places, they erect 
shelters of rest, where the weary traveller may 
enjoy the prospect and refresh himself for 
climbing still further upward. 

Something like this is my justification for 
sending forth this little book. It is not claimed 
that a new Christ is here set forth, or that 
startlingly new truths have been discovered 
concerning the Christ already known. The 
claim is simply that at a turn in the arduous 
way I have caught a glimpse of Jesus from 
what, to me, is a fresh viewpoint. And on 
the spot I set up this wayside shrine, that 
others, also, in passing may look and see and 
be refreshed. 

I pray God that this view of Christ may be a 



4 Contents. 

real help to many a weary traveller, and that, 
seeing him afresh, there may spring up in their 
hearts a fresh love for him — a love which shall 
grow until they love him better than they love 
anything else in the world. 

R. V. Lancaster. 

Abingdon, Va., July, 1905. 



CONTENTS. 

INTRODUCTION. 

I. Page. 

Creeds, 9 

II. 

The Human Mind in Eeligious Study, 11 

III. 

Why Study the Creed of Christ ? 14 



THE CREED. 

I. 
The Scriptures, 25 

II. 
God, 44 

III. 
Satan, 58 

IV. 
Sin, 68 



6 Contents. 

V. PAGE . 

Punishment foe Sin, 78 

VI. 

Himself, 92 

VII. 

Eedeemed Men, 100 

VIII. 
The Kingdom, 122 

IX. 
The Kingdom in the World, 134 

X. 

The Holy Spirit, 152 

XI. 
The Home-going, 167 

XII. 
The Second Coming, 176 

XIII. 
The Final Glory, 186 



INTRODUCTION. 



INTRODUCTION. 

I. 

Creeds. 

T? VERY man has a creed. He may not be 
■*"' able to state it, he may not be willing to 
state it, but he must believe something, and 
what he believes will show out in his character. 
He adopts the creed, and the creed in turn 
makes him. It is the bony frame about which 
is builded the spiritual stature of the man ; and 
the finished structure of his moral and religious 
life shows the curves and angles of the creed 
on which that life is built. 

The creed of a true man will show out in his 
speech. When such a man deals with high 
themes every word that he sends forth is chosen 
because it is fit to carry to men the faith that 
lives in his heart. His creed may not be a 
perfect one, it may not be a religious one, but 



io The Creed of Christ. 

if he believes it, his system of belief will in- 
evitably manifest itself. 

Nor is it a hard task to gather out of the 
lives and words of men a fair statement of 
what their real creed is. The creed that we thus 
construct for any definite man may not accord 
with the creed which that man professes, but 
the agreement will be near in proportion as the 
man is true. 

Assuming that the divine Christ was also a 
sincere man, of simple faith, and that the 
Gospels are a true record of his life, we have set 
ourselves the task of gathering together and 
stating the creed about which was built that 
matchless character, and under the guidance of 
which he did his mighty work and spoke his 
wonderful words. 



II. 

The Human Mind in Religious Study. 

"How readest thou?"— Luke x. 26. 

TT is assumed in this investigation that the 
four Gospels are a true, though incomplete, 
record of the life and words of Jesus Christ. 
His life has been lived. His thought has been 
expressed. Manifestly, then, nothing that is 
in my mind, and no attitude of my mind, can 
change one accomplished fact or spoken word. 
These are finished results, and the mind should 
be used in studying them just as it should be 
used in studying the facts in any department of 
nature. The geologist does not study the 
structure of a particular mountain by simply 
recalling the impressions of his childhood, or 
by searching his mind to see how he thinks a 
respectable mountain ought to be constructed. 
He goes out with pick and hammer to uncover 
and to break open facts, and as he sees them he 



12 The Creed of Christ. 

accepts them. In such studies the mind is 
receptive; and even when the mind is turned 
in upon itself to study its own construction, it 
must- view the phenomena as objective things, 
perceiving and recording what it sees. 

By this practice since Bacon's time great 
progress has been made in the knowledge of 
men and of things, but those most experienced 
in the application of this principle to the study 
of nature seem, by a strange inconsistency, 
most wedded to the opposite plan in the study 
of religion. They cannot accept certain re- 
vealed things as true, because they have an 
impression in their minds with which these 
things do not agree ! They will accept the facts 
stored away or expressed in the world of mat- 
ter, but they will not accept the clearer state- 
ments made in the Book, as if God could speak 
out of a stone, but could not use the language 
of men. 

If a man had skill to express an idea in a 
painting or in a statue, would it be any strange 
thing to find that the same man could express 
the same idea, and even additional ideas, in a 
book ? And should not the book be studied on 



The Mind in Religious Study. 13 

the same principle, and with as little prejudice, 
as the statue ? To cover the statue of Laocoon 
with raiment never so beautiful and modern 
would certainly obscure the ideas which the 
ancient artist labored to express. To inject our 
thoughts into the Gospels is to obscure their 
teaching. To receive their teaching simply and 
unchanged is to inform the mind. Let no man 
be like the anaconda, which eats nothing until 
he has first covered it with his own saliva. 

Much of religious truth is already in our 
possession. Much lies about us, ready to be 
gathered up ; and doubtless much is travelling 
towards us, like new stars which burst upon 
the eye of him who watches the heavens. Our 
duty is to receive it as it is, endeavoring to 
understand the terms of the grant which God 
has made to us, establish our title under him, 
and then bend every energy to explore the 
boundless riches of our new possessions. He 
who exploits a mine grows rich, not by what 
he puts in, but by what he takes out. 



III. 

Why Study the 'Creed of Christ? 

"The people that sat in darkness saw a great light." 
Matthew iv. 16. 

npHE creed makes the man, and the creed 
A determines what the man will do. This 
man is great, and has done great things. 
Doubtless then he had a great creed. Like 
forms of belief tend to produce like forms of 
conduct. Whatever aided in the development 
of that great character, and at the same time 
tends to develop and to perpetuate in the world 
a type of life like the life of Christ is worthy 
of the study of all mankind. In him the people 
which sat in darkness have seen a great light. 
A sufficient time has elapsed since Jesus lived 
for us to judge the truth of this statement by 
what has actually taken place. Some one 
might claim, however, that what is good in 
these two thousand years of history might have 
come if Jesus had never lived, and that when 



Why Study the Creed of Christ? 15 

so many forces are at work, it is unfair to refer 
to him as the source from which the bright 
spots that now mark the face of the earth draw 
their light. But it happens to be true that in 
those places where Jesus is best known there 
all blessings most abound, and the human mind 
is accustomed to think in the following way: 
when a result follows the presence of a definite 
force, and when the result clearly follows in 
proportion as that force is clearly present, and 
when that result does not appear when that 
force is absent, then that force is the cause of 
that result. Our purpose is to show that Jesus 
has been and is a great light. 

Certainly darkness covered the earth when 
he was born, and such darkness is a thing 
which, undisturbed, grows denser. At that 
time — we speak not of the year, but of the 
century — Greece, so great in literature and art, 
yet worshipper of gods so base that men would 
have despised their own gods had these gods 
been men (Gibbon), had fallen and become a 
vassal of Rome. Her art had decayed. Her 
worship and her lust remained. Rome is still 
armed with power, but toppling because of rank 



16 The Creed of Christ. 

corruption; woman a chattel, or divorced so 
readily that a man may have twenty wives 
before being buried by a woman who has had 
twenty-one husbands; a Roman senator — the 
name sounds noble, but this man is so vile and 
so servile, that he proposes in the Senate a law 
that all Roman homes be free to Julius Caesar ; 
Egypt, mighty country of the Pharaohs, has 
for its last queen the unclean Cleopatra; Gaul 
and northern Europe is the home of the Druids, 
and their human sacrifices ; Scotland furnishes 
a race of naked warriors whom some call can- 
nibals ; Judea, home of God's ancient worship, 
has hypocrites for priests and Herod for a 
king; scarcely has there ever been a darker 
time, and strange night was this for an exulting 
song to break forth, "Unto us a child is born, 
and his name shall be called Wonderful, 
Mighty God, the Prince of Peace." 1 

How could that age produce a character that 
has been the despair of all good men of all the 
ages that have followed? We can duplicate 
the military heroes of the ancients, or their 
wealthy men, or their philosophers, but there 

^sa. ix. 6. 



Why Study the Creed of Christ? 17 

has been only one Jesus Christ, and he is won- 
derful. 

He is wonderful in : 

1. His person and character. 

Most of us feel that what the great of earth 
have been we too might be under similar con- 
ditions, but before Jesus we stand abashed. A 
babe might now be born who, under the tuition 
of God, could do the work of Moses, but no 
man can be trained into a state in which it 
would be lawful for him to say, "Before Abra- 
ham was born, I am," 2 and "when I am in the 
world, I am the light of the world." 3 

Thoughtful men who do not love him over- 
much feel that when Jesus makes high claims 
and speaks great things, he speaks but fitly and 
worthily. "I know men, and I tell you that 
Jesus Christ is not a man" (Napoleon). "He 
is the purest among the mighty, the mightiest 
among the pure" (Richter). None like him 
has yet appeared, nor shall to the end of time. 

2. The Method of His Work. 

As he was an unusual being, so was the 
method of his work unusual. He sought not 

2 John viii. 58. 3 John ix. 5. 



18 The Creed of Christ. 

wealth in order to be great. 4 Croesus — but who 
is Croesus, and what was his country and his 
station ? He used not military power to spread 
his name. 5 Alexander and Caesar used this, 
and men now have to dig into the earth to find 
vestiges of their broken empires. Jesus used 
the mighty power of a heavenly life. His use 
of that life, his interpretation of that life, the 
life itself, constitute the foundation of an en- 
during kingdom. 6 

The hostility and indifference of men cannot 
stand before a love like his. Rome endeavors 
to crush his followers, but is herself broken as 
she falls upon that great foundation stone. 
Next come the Goths and Vandals to sweep 
clean the earth where Christ is known. They 
make a mistake in saving some alive. Ulfilas, 
a slave child, is born in the land of the Goths, 
and by knowing Jesus becomes the regenerator 
of the nation that enslaves him. The Scrip- 
tures which he translated into the tongue of 
that mighty people are now our best means of 
knowing how they spoke, and the religion of 
Jesus has changed the land of the Goths into 

4 Matt. iv. 9. 5 John xviii. 36. 3 John xii. 32. 



Why Study the Creed of Christ? 19 

modern Germany. The Mohammedans, mighty- 
apostles of fire and sword, turned back for the 
first time before men who worshipped Jesus. 

A still more dangerous obstacle arises. Un- 
faithful friends forget his teaching, and for 
policy's sake take on heathen forms and cus- 
toms. Saints made like the Roman gods, and 
angels, are worshipped more than he. It is 
very dark again, but the light, though covered, 
is not extinguished, and presently it flashes out 
once more in Reformation days. A strange 
method of work is his, but it counts. 

3. The Results. 

Take the world as it is to-day. The Chris- 
tian countries are the bright spots, and those 
are brightest where most is made of Jesus, and 
his truth is held in purest form. No nation is 
looking up unless it has come in contact with 
him, or has been touched by those who do 
honor him. Search the islands and the conti- 
nents, and see if I speak not the simple truth. 

Nor is this mere twentieth century progress, 
though the century be reckoned from him. 
Contact with trade and power and wealth does 
not elevate. The slave trade, the whiskey 



20 The Creed of Christ. 

trade, the ivory trade, the opium trade, the 
trade in implements of war, have helped none. 
The Bible which Henry M. Stanley left with 
King Mtesa, accomplished more than every 
godless trader that ever put his foot upon the 
dark continent. That Bible enabled men to see 
the great light, the light which lightens the 
nations, and is the glory of his people. 7 Jesus 
has made the modern world, and the things 
which he has done, the impression he has made, 
are proofs of his divine commission. 

A pleasing reflection may be thrown into the 
form of a question. If an imperfect perception 
of his truth, and a half-hearted following of 
Jesus have accomplished for men these won- 
derful results, what may we not expect when 
men see clearly, and follow him with all their 
hearts? "Of the increase of his government 
and of peace there shall be no end." 8 

Because of what he is, because of what he 
has done, because of what he yet will do, we 
should study the faith that moved him, and the 
purposes that filled his heart. He is great 
enough to be my Lord. He is kind and humble 

7 Luke ii: 32. 8 Isa. ix. 7. 



Why Study the Creed of Christ? 21 

enough to be my brother. When I make his 
creed my own, and that creed by living in my 
heart, has reformed my soul, I shall be like 
him. 



THE CREED OF CHRIST. 



THE CREED OF CHRIST. 
I. 

The Scriptures. 

"Whence then hath this man all these things?" — Matt. 
xiii. 56. 

"And he began to say unto them, To-day hath this 
scripture been fulfilled in your ears." — Luke iv. 21. 

A CCORDING to the Apostle Paul, three 
■* *- sources of religious knowledge are open 
to ordinary men : the works of nature, 1 the 
moral constitution of man, 2 and the sacred 
Scriptures. 3 These fountains feed alike the 
high and the low. They have given to all men, 
and they gave to Jesus Christ. The measure 
that they fill for a man is the measure that he 
brings. 4 To Christ they gave abundantly, and, 
to him no one of these fountains was closed. 

Over us indeed he had two advantages, a 
clearer eye, and a higher view-point; yet he, 
like any other man, could look upon the lilies 

1 Rom. i. 20. 2 Rom. fi. 15. s Rom. iii. 2. 

4 Matt. vi. 22, 23. 



26 The Creed of Christ. 

and the birds, and see his Father's hand at work 
among them. 5 He could turn his thought to 
the constitution of his own mind and heart, and 
see all that we see of the divine law. And 
much more could he see, for his self-conscious- 
ness went back and took hold of things that 
he had seen and known and heard of the 
Father. 6 Nor was this his only peculiarity. 
High though his station was — nay, because 
his station was so high ; clear though his vision 
was — nay, because his vision was so clear, one 
fact stands out that makes him a man of dif- 
ferent faith from us. Mark that fact. Neither 
in nature, nor in himself did he ever find a 
truth at variance with the Scriptures of God. 
The three open volumes told to him the story 
of a common Author and Ruler, who, being 
good and filled with knowledge, made every 
statement in each book in view of what was 
written in the other two. The foregoing state- 
ments may be established in the following way. 
God makes the lilies grow. 7 God abode in 
Jesus. 8 God speaks in the Scriptures. 9 Now 



6 Matt. vii. 26-28. 6 Comp. John viii. 38; iii. 

7 Matt. vi. 28-30. 8 John xiv. 10. 9 Mark xii. 26, 



The Scriptures. 27 

God is consistent. "If God so clothe the grass 
of the field, shall he not much more clothe 
you?" 10 Small wonder is it, then, that of 
men that have been born, no one has ever 
equalled him in large-hearted loyalty to these 
sacred books. 11 

His Bible, of course, was our Old Testament, 
for he quotes from every part into which the 
books were classed by the Jews of his time, and 
since his day both Jew and Christian have 
guarded them against corruption. 12 The man 
Jesus was brought up in a very humble home, 
and we do not know what access he had to the 
Scriptures of God. Possibly the most revered 
treasure of the house was the sacred rolls of the 
Book. Possibly he attended the synagogue 
school. But even if such opportunities were 
denied him we know that, whether from the 
lips of his mother, or from public inscriptions, 
or from the copies stored in the synagogue, 
somehow he studied at an early age, 13 and with 
rare success, the written Word, and stored his 
memory so well that he could quote the text 

10 Matt. vi. 30. n Matt. iv. 4; xxvi. 54; John x. 35. 

12 Luke xxiv. 44 (and quotations.) 13 Luke ii. 47. 



28 The Creed of Christ. 

at will. 14 And so skillful was he and ready- 
that life-long students of the written Word 
were baffled by the aptness of the quotations 
which he made. 15 

Nor ought this picture of the Son of man 
bending his mind and heart upon the words of 
the holy Law to surprise us. The Bible meant 
a great deal to him. We know how different 
the page shines one day from what it does on 
another. For him it shone more brightly every 
day than it shines for us on the best of the days. 
He loved the Scriptures, and the light which 
they gave back as he gazed upon them must 
have been entrancing. 16 Nor was it a mere 
feast of the heart, his mind was enlarged to 
grasp the soul of every word, 17 and type, 18 and 
figure. 19 Certain it is that he saw deeper than 
the people of his day ever did. "Ye have 
heard." . . . "But I say." 20 The teachers 
of his time saw a law of external observances, 
touching only the outward man. Jesus saw a 
law that reached to the innermost springs of 

14 Matt. iv. 1-10 (and numerous other places). 

13 Mark xii. 34; Luke xx. 40. 16 John v. 39; Luke xxiv. 27. 

17 John x. 36. 18 John i. 51; iii. 14. 19 Matt. v. 3-10. 

20 Matt. v. 21-43; Luke v. 1-10. 



The Scriptures. 29 

thought and action. 21 The people of his day, 
confused by the composite picture of the Mes- 
siah's kingdom, and led by natural impulses to 
seek money and place and worldly profit, were 
looking for a king Who would bring all these 
things to them. 22 He, like John in the Revela- 
tion, looked, and instead of a lion saw a lamb, 
Whose gift was his life, and whose glory was a 
crown of thorns. 23 Other men could find no 
proof of man's immortality in these pages. 
Instantly he points to one passage whose deeper 
meaning embraces that great truth. 24 

Even his own followers were no better. 
They at the very last did not understand, could 
not understand, why shame and death should 
come to him they loved, 25 and one of the ten- 
derest services which he rendered to them at 
the end of his life is described in these words, 
"Then opened he their mind, that they might 
understand the Scriptures." 26 Never was 
there a sharper contrast than between Jesus 
and all the men of his day. The teachers, the 
people, his own followers were hopelessly 

21 Matt. v. 28; Mark vii. 15. 22 John vi. 15. 23 Matt. xx. 28. 

24 Matt. xxii. 23-32. 25 Matt. xvi. 22; Luke xxiv. 21. 

26 Luke xxiv. 45. 



30 The Creed of Christ. 

bound by the idea of self-interest. The priests 
must hold their place at all hazard. 27 The 
people will have no Messiah who will not be a 
worldly king. 28 The apostles wish to have the 
chief positions in his kingdom. 29 Jesus sees, 
sees in the same pages that are open to them, 
the divine vision of a spiritual kingdom, 30 
in which money is not the standard of value, 31 
and in which the only highway to glory is the 
way of unselfish service. 32 

The chief point of interest, however, is not 
what he knew about the Scriptures, for a man 
may study them for a multitude of reasons, but 
how that knowledge affected his life. In what 
attitude did he stand to the writings and to 
their contents? 

i. As to the writings themselves, we note — 
(i) He defended their authority. The 
formalists of his day had accepted traditionary 
rules of conduct, and substituted them for the 
plain commands that had been written. 33 They 
had also passed current among themselves cer- 

27 John xi. 48. 28 John vi. 15, 66. » Mark ix. 34. 

30 John xviii. 36. 31 Luke xii. 15. 32 Matt. xx. 26. 

33 Mark vii. 8. 



The Scriptures. 31 

tain traditionary methods of interpretation that 
robbed the truth of half its power. 34 Jesus, 
the simplest mannered man, rebuked with 
burning zeal the punctilious tither of mint, 35 
as well as the ones who had made void the 
commands of God through their tradition. 36 
The laying of extra burdens on men whom God 
had made to be free, 37 the warping of the sense 
of the law so as to excuse current practices, 38 
the emphasizing of outward forms at the ex- 
pense of the spiritual graces which the Scrip- 
tures enjoin, 39 all these things are absolutely 
condemned by him. 

The rationalists of his day believed in the 
present order of affairs, could find no room in a 
material world for the supernatural. 40 Angel 
and spirit and the future life were myths of 
less enlightened times. While they claimed 
against the formalists to honor the Scriptures, 41 
yet, since the Scriptures were full of stories 
that ran counter to their beliefs, 40 of course 
they must be allowed to select for obedience 

34 Matt, xxiii. 16-22. 35 Matt, xxiii. 23, 24. 36 Matt. xv. 6, 7. 

37 Matt, xxiif. 4. 3S Mark vii. 10-13. 39 Matt, xxiii. 25, 26. 

40 Matt. xxii. 23; Acts xxiif. 8. 



2,2 The Creed of Christ. 

only the portions that were agreeable to the 
wisdom of advanced thought. Jesus, the hum- 
blest minded of men, found in the same Scrip- 
tures that were open to them God and Spirit 
and eternal life. 42 To him the miracles of the 
Old Testament presented no difficulties. He 
believed the wondrous stories, 43 and with two 
words he laid bare the sources of all intellectual 
difficulties which proud minded men ever find 
in the Bible, (a) Either we do not understand 
the Scriptures, or understanding them, (b) we 
doubt the power of God. "Is it not for this 
cause that ye err, that ye know not the Scrip- 
tures, nor the power of God?" 44 

(2) He accepts these Scriptures as a suffi- 
cient rule of conduct. Twice he gives the 
great moral law, or its summary, as that which 
if a man do, he shall enter the life of God, 45 
and when the amiable young man, with simple 
frankness, claimed to have kept that law and 
yet to be lacking, Jesus placed upon him a 
command 46 which in one moment showed him 

"Josephus' Antiquities, Bk. xiii., Chap, x., § 6. 

42 Matt. xxii. 23-32. 43 Matt. x. 15; xii. 40. "Mark xii. 24. 

45 Matt. xfx. 16-19; Luke x. 25-28. 48 Matt. xix. 21, 22. 



The Scriptures. 33 

to be ignorant of what that law really taught 
when it said, "Thou shalt not covet/' 47 Thus 
to men under the law he said, "Keep the law 
and you shall live." No precept does he re- 
peal. 48 The cry, "Repent," 49 simply means, 
come back to the standard which God has set 
up. The law is broken, come back and make 
amends. His great work was simply to help 
the man who had broken that perfect rule, and 
had no way to mend it. 50 

(3) He defended the integrity of the Scrip- 
tures. Jesus was not a scholar in the modern 
sense, but he knew a world more about the 
Word of God and the days of its writing than 
those who were doctors then, or are doctors 
now, and he committed himself to the belief 
that Moses and David and Isaiah and all the 
prophets produced the books that are accredited 
to them. Sometimes quotations are made in 
such a way as not necessarily to imply this. 
But the references to Moses in John v. 45-47, 
and to David in Luke xx. 41-44 gain their 
whole force from the personal relation of these 

47 Exod. xx. 17. " Matt. v. 17. 4 » Matt. iv. 17. 

60 Luke vii. 41-50. 



34 The Creed of Christ. 

two men to the writings in question. The 
reference to Isaiah is distinctly personal in 
Mark vii. 6. His treatment of the other 
prophets is implied in Luke xxiv. 27. 

Further still, there seems no doubt that in 
the view of this man the Scriptures of God 
were not only in their teaching, but in the 
record of that teaching, without error. Please 
consider whether a true man could possibly 
have spoken as he did if this had not been his 
belief. To say that the smallest Hebrew letter 
(jot) j or distinguishing mark of a letter 
(tittle), 51 must stand as firm as the solid earth 
or arching heavens, to base substantial argu- 
ments upon the use of single words, emphasiz- 
ing when he does it that the Scripture cannot 
be broken 52 - — to say that a man spake by the 
Holy Ghost, 53 to refer to the Scriptures as a 
court of final appeal, 54 as he so often did, could 
any man have so used these Scriptures if he 
had believed them partly true and partly false, 
or if he had believed that God's truth was not 
the Scriptures, but only contained somewhere 

51 Matt. v. 18. 52 John x. 35. 53 Mark xii. 36. 

54 Matt. xxi. 13; John vi. 45. 



The Scriptures. 35 

within the Scriptures, with no means of our 
determining where? 

2. There is a difference still between what 
men believe and how men believe. Did this 
belief in the authority and faultless perfection 
of Scripture affect practically his life? Three 
ways appear. 

(1) He consistently grounded his teaching 
in these Scriptures. Knowing much unknown 
on earth before, 55 and conscious of his high 
place among the messengers of God to men, 56 
he still showed the utmost regard for every 
prophet that had gone before, and declared that 
he came to pull down no slightest stone which 
they had placed in God's great temple. 57 His 
work was to complete what they had begun. 
They in dim light had drawn an outline picture. 
He, with all necessary skill and the light of a 
perfect knowledge, had come to fill that outline 
up, and make it the noblest, the clearest, the 
most beautiful of all God's works. In this 
sense he would fulfil What they had done. 58 
The whole of the Gospels is an illustration of 

85 Matt. xi. 27; John xv. 22. 58 Matt. xii. 41, 42. 

57 Matt. v. 19. 58 Matt. v. 17. 



36 The Creed of Christ. 

this building on 'the work already done by lesser 
hands, for besides the scriptural coloring and 
images and illustrations with which his teach- 
ing abounds, it will readily occur to the Bible 
student that in such cases as his synagogue 
sermon, 59 his teaching as to the permanence of 
the marriage tie, 60 his showing how the men 
led of God would come to him, 61 his tracing 
through the whole Scripture the things con- 
cerning himself, 62 — we have proofs of two 
habits of thought. 

(a) He often founded upon a Scripture 
statement some stately edifice of apparently 
new truth. 

(b) He appealed to the Scriptures as suffi- 
cient proof of his statements, and did so in the 
spirit of one who thought that no better proof 
could ever be found. 

(2) He takes the Scriptures as the rule of 
his life. This will appear from the following 
circumstances. At the time of his temptation 
there were a number of considerations that 
would have led an ordinary man to yield to the 

69 Luke iv. 17-21. eo Mark x. 5-9. 61 John vi. 45. 

62 Luke xxiv. 27. 



The Scriptures. 37 

suggestions made by the devil. All his physi- 
cal nature was certainly on the side of his 
obtaining food, and that in haste. The devil 
had shown to him an easy and a ready way to 
supply his wants. Jesus undertook to advance 
a reason which would silence the devil by show- 
ing that it was forever impossible for him, an 
obedient son, to take the course suggested. 
The reason given was that across that way the 
ringer of God had written, "Thou shalt not." 63 
The high-handed and revolutionary measure of 
cleansing the temple he justifies by an appeal 
to these same Scriptures, 64 and to them he 
appeals to show that his entering into social 
intercourse with publicans and sinners was 
right; 65 that for 'him to receive the hosannas 
of the children, 66 and for his people to do 
necessary labor upon the Sabbath, 67 were not 
sinful. But most striking of all perhaps is the 
self-restraint which he showed at the time of 
his arrest. The dark way, with its desertion 
and pain, had been revealed to him through the 
study of the prophets. 68 His disciples know 



68 Matt. iv. 3, 4. M Matt. xxi. 13. " Matt. ix. 13. 

68 Matt. xxi. 16. w Luke vi. 3. 68 Luke xxiv. 44. 



38 The Creed of Christ. 

not the end, and urge him to turn back from a 
way that seems so hard. 69 With what amaz- 
ing calmness does he assert that he could pray 
and his Father would at once give him the 
army of heaven to defend and keep him safe ; 70 
but he adds, "How then should the Scripture 
be fulfilled?" 71 With power to flee, yet 
bound by a high purpose, and by loyalty to 
God's revealed will ! 72 How much further 
could devotion go? It is not intended that 
the Scriptures held him as they hold a common 
man whose will is contrary to the commands, 
but it is held that Jesus, our Saviour, lived in 
full knowledge of the Scriptures, transgressing 
their teaching in nothing, 73 and leaving undone 
no duty which they require. 74 A perfect man, 
accorded with a perfect law, and freely walked 
in its light. 

(3) He found in the Scriptures the ideal life, 
and followed it. Early he came to the study 
of God's Word with the conviction that the 
Word spoke of him, and showed the way of his 
going. "I that speak unto thee am he," the 

69 Matt. xvf. 22. 70 Matt. xxvi. 53. 71 Matt. xxvi. 54. 
72 John x. 18. 73 John viii. 46. 7i Matt. iii. 15; xvii. 24-27. 



The Scriptures. 39 

Messiah. 75 And who is that? Where does 
one learn of him ? It is all written in the law 
of Moses and in the prophets and in the 
Psalms. 68 Can we conceive the rapture with 
which a man would dwell upon those glowing 
pages, while the angel of a deep conviction 
constantly whispered, "These are they which 
bear witness of thee?" 76 It was thus he read, 
and in the reading saw himself, and followed 
whithersoever the vision led. Then in the 
synagogue at Nazareth, 77 when the people are 
wondering what great thing their townsman is 
growing to be, he takes in his hand the 
prophecy of Isaiah, reads in a way quite strange 
to them that great passage about the burden- 
bearer, the preacher, the liberator. His heart 
swells before the grand picture of what his life 
will be, and as the people fasten their eyes upon 
him he exclaims, "To-day hath this Scripture 
been fulfilled in your ears." From these be- 
ginnings he passed on and on, the Messiah con- 
ception resting upon him at once as a burden 78 
and as an inspiration. 79 With conscious pur- 

76 John iv. 26. 7e John v. 39. " Luke iv. 16-21. 

78 Luke xii. 50. 79 John xii. 23. 



40 The Creed of Christ. 

pose he speaks to the people in parables ; 80 with 
a like conscious purpose he plans the triumphal 
entry into Jerusalem. 81 On and on, never for 
a moment losing sight of what it behooved this 
Messiah to do or say. 82 He measured even 
his expectations from friends 83 and enemies 84 
by what the prophets had spoken, for he could 
trace his footsteps everywhere, learning from 
Moses and all the prophets the things concern- 
ing himself — the Christ — ought he not ? 85 
His heart would burn as truly as the hearts of 
those who heard him, and it is no wonder that 
he who found so much in these Scriptures loved 
them with an absorbing passion. In the most 
intimate of all relations, when in prayer he 
would speak the things of his heart to the heart 
of God, he quoted them. 86 And even at the 
very end, when after being in exile so long, and 
was now returning home, he found his mother- 
tongue, and yielded up his spirit into his Fa- 
ther's hand with a word taken from among the 
words that his own spirit had given to the 
world. 87 

80 Matt. xiii. 10-15. 81 Matt. xxi. 1-11. 82 John iv. 34. 
83 Matt. xxvf. 31. 84 Mark ix. 12. 85 Luke xxiv. 26, 27. 
88 John xvii. 12; Matt, xxvii. 46. 8T Luke xxiii. 46. 



The Scriptures. 41 

To make an estimate of what these Scrip- 
tures really were to him is perhaps impossible 
for us ; to possess a mind that stumbles not at 
any of the teachings, and a heart that rebels not 
at any of the commands, is the perfection of 
Jesus. The best that we can do is to bow 
humbly before the teachings that seem hard, 
waiting patiently till our minds have time to 
grow. Meanwhile we may so fill our hearts 
with the ideals of life that the Scriptures give, 
and the gracious promises that in them are 
made, that our service shall be in full view of 
what they teach, and we too be able to feel that 
this duty has come to me, or this joy has filled 
my heart, because it is so written concerning 
me, 88 his child, and the Scripture cannot be 
broken. 89 With the Scriptures concerning 
Jesus, added to the Scriptures which he had 
and loved, we are rich indeed — rich in light, 
and in the countless possibilities of the ideal, 
joyous life which opens to our view. The rea- 
son for our poverty lies in our wilful ignorance 
of what the Scriptures teach, or in our unbelief 
of that portion of the teachings which to our 

88 Matt. xxvi. 24; Luke xviii. 31. 89 John x. 35. 



42 The Creed of Christ. 

minds seems clear. Jesus understood and be- 
lieved his Bible; we do not. 

Scholium. — The attitude of the divine Christ 
toward the Old Testament must settle the atti- 
tude of every regenerate man toward that 
Book. Suppose it be proved that some of the 
incidents and teachings found in the Old Testa- 
ment are found also, with slight variations, in 
the sacred books of Babylon, of India, or of 
China. This fact could never prove the Bible 
account to be untrue. And if we are at a loss 
to know which of the various accounts we 
ought to accept, the fact that Je'sus was not 
born in Babylon, in India, or in China, but was 
born in Judea avowedly to meet the prophetic 
expectations of the Old Testament, and did 
meet them, must settle forever the transcendent 
importance of that Book to all whose life is 
bound up with his life. To such a man the 
comparative study of the world's religions does 
not debase the Old Testament to a level with 
other books. It simply serves to show the ap- 
proximations and departures which others have 
made in reference to this, his ultimate standard 
of belief. For in giving to the world the 



The Scriptures. 43 

knowledge of himself and of things to come, 
Jesus also adopted and gave this Book concern- 
ing the things that had gone before. 



II. 

God. 

"The Father is with me." — John xvi. 32. 

"]%yTANY things may be believed and known 
■*•■■■ concerning God, and there are many 
ways in which one may believe in God. This 
is shown by James when he says, "The demons 
also believe and shudder." x It is in the atti- 
tude which is held toward God that we find the 
difference between the moralist and the re- 
ligious man. The moralist goes his way, led 
by considerations of what he is, and of what 
his place requires, seeking the approval of his 
own conscience as the highest joy. The re- 
ligious soul bends before the revelation of a 
personal will, and finds its strength in com- 
munion with that personal God. Jesus Christ 
was preeminently a religious man, and with 
his superior ways of finding out, brings to us 
very clearly the doctrines of God's unity, 2 

1 James ii. 19. 2 Mark xil. 29. 



God. 45 

eternity, 3 omnipresence, 4 omniscience, 5 omnip- 
otence, 6 goodness 7 and justice ; 8 but the most 
manifest peculiarity of his faith was that God 
is NEAR. 9 

The tendency of modern thought seems to 
be away from this notion. When evolution 
takes any account of God at all, it places him at 
the beginning of an almost infinite series, too 
far away to be taken into account, or to be of 
any practical use. Physical science, if it finds 
room for him at all, regards him only as a great 
constitution builder, who, in setting up a uni- 
versal reign of law, has limited his own free- 
dom. His laws are but chains with which to 
bind himself, and the cruel machine which he 
has set up is beyond his own control, so that 
we are foolish to cry to the God of nature for 
any help. The higher criticism of the Scrip- 
tures accomplishes very much the same thing 
for us, by cutting out of the Bible all that tells 
of events above the experience of men now 
living. It is a little hard to see of what good 
is a God thus bound and far away, but so 

'John xvii. 24. 4 John xiv. 23. 6 Matt. vi. 32. 

8 John x. 29; Matt, xxviii. 18. 7 Luke xviii. 19. 

8 Matt. vii. 2; Luke xvfii. 7. 8 John viii. 29; xvi. 32. 



46 The Creed of Christ. 

strong is this tendency that all who wish to 
appear well informed seem inevitably urged on 
to push God into the distance. 

Granting that there is a God, his attributes 
might well be what the Scriptures describe, 
and we may find no difficulty in so thinking. 
The practical difficulty nowadays is, to rise to 
the faith of Jesus, to whom God was a present 
and an efficient help, 10 for having heard a voice 
at the beginning of his work which showed that 
there was One just above him who cared for 
him, and approved of the work which he was 
doing, 11 he seems always to have been strong 
and happy in that work. Nor was he lonely, 
though alone; the Father was with him, 12 and 
to get rid of other company, so that he might 
have communion with that Father, 13 was the 
nearest approach to self-indulgence of which 
he was guilty, and for this his highest joy he 
rather robbed the hours of his own rest than 
the hours which others might with reason 
claim. 14 . 

This, then, was his faith. 

10 Matt. xii. 28; John v. 19. u Matt. iii. 17. 

12 John xvi. 32. 13 Matt. xiv. 23. " Luke vi. 12. 



God. 47 

i. He believed God to be the actual ruler 
and inspector of this world. In majesty he 
sits upon the heavens for a throne, 15 and the 
earth is his footstool. 16 Out of his generous 
hand the sunshine and the rain descend to bless 
even the rebellious and unthankful. 17 All 
power is his, 18 and the Lord of heaven and 
earth performs his pleasure and delivers au- 
thority and power to whom he will. 19 All 
living things depend upon his thoughtful care. 20 
The men of the world he holds responsible for 
the gifts they have received. 21 Inspecting 
every tree of his vineyard, he expects returns 
proportioned to the care bestowed. 22 He also 
is the one object of worship, to whom men must 
everywhere bow, 23 and to whom every man 
whose spirit pities the wasting harvest must 
cry for laborers to bring in the whitening 
grain. 24 Thus God knows all, rules all, and is 
so great that all everywhere may worship him 
and be heard. But this care is not general and 
indefinite. 

15 Matt. v. 34; xxiii. 22. 16 Matt. v. 35. 17 Matt. v. 45. 

18 Matt. xi. 25-27; John x. 29. 19 John xix. 11. 

20 Matt. vi. 26. 21 Matt. xxv. 14-30. 22 Luke xiif. 6-9. 

23 John iv. 20-24. 2i Matt. ix. 38. 



48 The Creed of Christ. 

2. Jesus believed in particular providence. 
The sun shines, and all who are in the right 
position may be benefited. If we could con- 
ceive the sun as consciously lifting the mists 
that hang thick above the valleys, intentionally 
engaged in painting some tiny flower, lovingly 
caring for each tender plant, arid neither by 
excess of heat, nor by hiding his face too long, 
allowing the best interests of any creature to 
suffer — if we could conceive of such a sun, 
dealing with each with all the care and skill 
that he gives to all, we should have a much 
nearer approach to Christ's conception of God's 
gracious care. Each bird he feeds, 25 each lily 
does he clothe, 26 the sparrow, sick or smitten 
or freezing, and falling to the ground, escapes 
not his affectionate notice, 27 and a man higher 
and nearer to God than any of these may think 
of God as numbering and marking the tiniest 
thing that aids his comfort or adorns his life. 28 

Not only can God touch the individual, but 
God must touch every soul of man that enters 
the kingdom, 29 and they enter one by one, each 



"Matt. vi. 26. 26 Matt, vi. 30. "Matt. x. 29. 

28 Luke xii. 7. 29 John iii. 3. 



God. 49 

having had this high transaction for himself. 30 
This tree bears fruit, and that does not. 31 This 
man has revealed to him truth which is hid 
from other minds, and which he had no means 
of knowing till God became his teacher. 32 Each 
branch he prunes, lest it be unfruitful through 
neglect, 33 and if this little one is caught in an 
evil snare, and this one set the trap, God knows 
them both, and will arise to avenge the wrong. 
Then woe, not to the world, but to that indi- 
vidual whom God condemns. 34 Jesus did not 
seem to understand how God could govern the 
world, and have nothing to do with the parts 
that make up that world. To him God not 
only had to do with masses — he ruled and 
cared for men. 35 But higher still in this belief 
did he go. 

3. Jesus believed that God was concerned 
about him. God had used the individualizing 
"thou" and he had heard it. 36 Nevermore was 
he alone ; the Father was with him, working in 
what he worked, 37 both directing 38 and giving 
power. 37 Every miracle was witness to this 

80 John vi. 65. 81 Luke xiii. 6-9. 32 Matt. xvi. 17. 

38 John xv. 2. S4 Matt, xviii. 6. 

36 Luke xxif. 32; John xvii. 9. 36 Mark i. 11. 

87 John xiv. 10. M John v. 19 : xiv. 31. 



.50 The Creed of Christ. 

great fact. He might speak, and men might 
wonder 39 at the unseen power which accom- 
panied his words. They attempted unsuccess- 
fully to explain the strange phenomenon, 40 but 
Jesus made it plain when he said it was simply 
the finger of God. 41 "The Father hath sent me 
into the world' ' ; 42 his Spirit is upon me, 43 
and "I do always the things that are pleasing 
to him." 44 Between him and God there was 
personal communion and intercourse. 45 God 
might and did love the world, 46 but dearer 
than this God loved him, and let him know it. 47 
"I know that thou nearest me always" ; 48 "I 
abide in his love." 49 His labor and suffering 
came not because the Father had forgotten, or 
was unable to help him. Nay, the bitter cup 
was held in the same loving hand that had 
measured to him his greatest blessings, and he 
braced himself to the supreme sorrow with the 
reflection, "The cup which the Father hath 
given me, shall I not drink it?" 50 Aye, when 

39 Luke xi. 14. *° Luke xi. 15. 41 Luke xi. 20. 

42 John iii. 17; x. 36; xvii. 18. i3 Luke iv. 18. 

44 John viii. 29. 45 John xvif. 4(J John iii. 16. 

47 John xv. 9. 48 John xi. 42. 49 John xv. 10. 
50 John xviii. 11. 



God. 5 1 

God measures out to a special man, if the man 
have anything of God in his heart, he must 
drink what the cup holds. 

That this was Jesus' faith cannot be more 
clearly shown than by examining the substance 
and spirit of his prayers. There were definite 
things which he wished to do, and he looked up 
to heaven as he entered on the mighty tasks. 51 
His heart was not filled with general aspirations 
which he could not, or dared not, express, and 
which he had no reason to believe God would 
grant if he did express them. He reached up 
to God for aid in special tasks, 52 and for the 
fulfilment of plans and desires which he must 
leave unrealized. 53 The seventeenth chapter 
of John is a definite prayer whose specific an- 
swer is making richer the life of every child of 
God to-day. Would he have spent whole 
nights 54 upon the weary mountain top in 
prayer if he had not believed that God came 
down to meet and feed his hungry soul? 
Would he have told of a poor, sin-burdened 
man crying out for mercy and going home with 

51 Matt. xiv. 19. 62 John xi. 41. 53 John xvii. 20, 24. 
54 Luke vi. 12. 



52 The Creed of Christ. 

a sense of infinite peace, if he had not believed 
it was true ? 55 

If there be hollo wness in a man's teaching, it 
will show in times of danger. But see Jesus 
when they come for his arrest, and when he 
knows the end to be near, standing with all the 
dignity of a God in human form, and asking, 
"Or thinkest thou that I cannot beseech my 
Father, and he shall even now send me more 
than twelve legions of angels ?" 56 To one 
who spoke like this, God surely was not far 
away. And when previously in the garden he 
used that strange address, a cry of the child- 
heart, an address used only then — the word 
"my" coupled in direct address with the word 
"Father" — "My Father" 57 — T know that he 
thought God heard those words. So also upon 
the cross, when he said, "Into thy hands," 58 it 
seems as if he thought he could reach up with 
his poor hands and touch the hands of the in- 
finite God. 

II. Of this article in our Saviour's creed, 
the nearness of God, we note — 



65 Luke xviii. 14. "Matt. xxvf. 53. " Matt. xxvi. 42. 
88 Luke xxiii.46. 



God. 53 

i. It was a source of great comfort and 
strength to him. He is the author of the words, 
"Yea, Father, for so it seemed well-pleasing in 
thy sight," 59 and this was said in the face of 
God's inscrutable providence. When the Jews 
early in his ministry were going about to kill 
him, 60 and again when he spoke to his disciples 
of their leaving him alone to his dread fate, 61 
he uses the words which would make any heart 
stout, "The Father is with me." Herod may 
seek to kill him, but he knows that to meet the 
Father's plan, he must work to-day and to- 
morrow; therefore, no fear comes to his 
heart. 62 God, whose eye is on him, is nearer 
and stronger than Herod. Pilate, armed with 
Roman might, may boast of authority, and 
endeavor to disturb the calm prisoner of the 
gentle eye and voice that stands before him, but 
Jesus tells the haughty man that even Rome's 
mighty power would be annulled if God let 
down his hand between the prisoner and the 
judge. 63 

2. He wishes his people to believe as he did 

58 Matt. xi. 26. w John viii. 29. 61 John xvi. 32. 

62 Luke xiii. 32. m John xix. 10, 11. 



54 The Creed of Christ. 

on this great point. God does hide himself in 
his works and in the parables of life so that not 
all are able to find him or to see his hand, 64 but 
if one knows Christ and keeps his command- 
ments, he will be taught the language of his 
providence, and shall even have a special mani- 
festation of God's presence in his heart. 65 Jude 
did not understand this, but Jesus says it is 
true, and he elsewhere asserts that he has in- 
deed manifested God's name to certain chosen 
ones who had been given unto him. 66 More- 
over, at the tomb of Lazarus, the very purpose 
of his prayer is declared to be the enlighten- 
ment of his friends on this point, "I know that 
thou hearest me always, but because of the mul- 
titude that standeth around I said it, that they 
may believe." 67 O Lord, give proof that my 
work is thy work, that when thy servant speaks 
the Master hears ; and the proof came. Is not 
every injunction to prayer but evidence of the 
same desire on his part ? 'Thy Father seeth in 
secret ;" 68 ask and he will give 69 — give daily 
bread, guidance, forgiveness, deliverance, 70 

"Matt, xii'i. 11. 65 John xiv. 7-23. 66 John xvii. 6. 

67 John xi. 42. 68 Matt. vi. 4. 09 Matt. vii. 7; John xv. 16. 

70 Matt. vi. 9-15. 



God. 55 

and if there be any case unprovided for, re- 
member that "your heavenly Father knoweth 
that ye have need." 71 Can one get so far 
away as to be beyond the reach of this, "My 
Father knoweth"? Here is comfort, courage, 
peace and hope. In loneliness, when misunder- 
stood, when defamed, when betrayed, when 
broken-hearted, when bereaved, and we like 
children are crying in the night, the cry goes 
not out into earless, heartless space. The 
Father knoweth and is very near. 

This article of faith in the nearness of God 
has been in the creeds of well-nigh all the great 
of earth. Men are weak, and they need a 
strong hand to hold them up and make them 
stand. Even heathen men have felt the power 
that comes from a thought like this. Confu- 
cius conceived truth to be dear to heaven, and 
that heaven would preserve him, because he 
stood so near to truth. Thus in desertion and 
shame he said, "There is no one that knows me, 
but there is heaven — that knows me." Cer- 
tainly, then, faith in the nearness of the living 
God would add strength to any man. Gideon 

"Matt. vi. 32. 



56 The Creed of Christ. 

in his battle cry coupled the sword of God with 
the weapon which was wielded by his own arm, 
and every arm that followed him was stronger 
by reason of that faith. The prophet Elisha, 
when surrounded by human foes, and when his 
own friend has lost all faith and hope, could 
see, and pray that the young man might see, 
the hosts of God gathered upon the hills to 
comfort and encourage him. God opened the 
eyes of the youth, and all his fear departed. 
Paul, the apostle, pressed well-nigh to crushing, 
assures us that he could do all things through 
Christ, and in giving account of his first ap- 
pearance before the bar of the Caesar at Rome, 
when all his friends forsook him, leaving him 
unaided to face the dread tribunal, he tells us 
that God stood with him and strengthened him. 
Martyrs and reformers, whether in prison, at 
the stake, or on the mountains cold, felt the 
power and comfort of this same faith. God 
was near to them, nearest when they were most 
in need. 

As a particle of dust against the world, or a 
feather in a whirlwind, so is one man against 
the forces of nature or against the passions of 



God. 57 

men, yet with this presence of God in his soul, 
and this faith that God is near at hand, that 
same atom may have courage to face the one, 
and power to rule the other, for men are heroes 
still when they catch from heaven the voice, 
"Lo, I am with you always," 72 and men are 
comforted still when they can say, "My Father 
knoweth," 73 and no burden can crush the man 
who, in the simplicity of the faith of Jesus, can 
say, "I am not alone." 74 

72 Matt, xxviii. 20. n Matt. vi. 32. T * John xvi. 32. 



III. 

Satan. 

"I beheld Satan fallen as lightning from heaven." 
Luke x. 18. 

/^HRIST in this passage names his enemy 
^-^ and tells of a wonderful vision concerning 
him. Whatever the original occurrence was, 
the words placed where they are mean that 
Christ, as he saw his kingdom grow and vic- 
tories over evil won, saw, as one sees a light- 
ning flash in the heavens, Satan and his king- 
dom falling to inevitable defeat. Christ and 
Satan, leaders of two hostile forces, make no 
truces, 1 and are so related that gain for one 
means loss to the other. 2 Christ's kingdom 
is set up against the kingdom of the Prince of 
this world, and every follower of Christ is a 
man snatched by violence from the power of 
Satan. 3 Satan, like some feudal baron, 4 is not 
careful what his serfs may think of him so long 
as the service is rendered and the revenues are 

1 Matt. iv. 8-11. 2 John xii. 31-32. 3 Luke xf. 14-23. 
4 Luke xi. 21. 



Satan. 59 

paid. He may hide himself from view until 
men come to doubt whether there be such a 
person or not. They may count themselves "at 
peace," 4 held by circumstances, their own 
poverty, their weakness, to the soil. Little 
cares he. So long as they serve, and die as 
their fathers did, he is satisfied, for their skep- 
ticism as to the lord within the castle gates may 
remove from them an object of hate; as he 
keeps them poor and weak, his reign is 
strengthened by their doubts. His sway is 
maintained by craft as much as by strength. 
"He is a liar." 5 And it suits his purpose for 
men to ridicule his being and attributes. Whom 
men despise they do not fear. The jests and 
pictures that make men laugh and hold his 
being in contempt really serve to throw us oft* 
our guard, and make his victories the easier. 
Who now believes? who now trembles before 
the assaults of this enemy whom Christ named 
Satan ? Christ doubted not, and Christ laughed 
not. Satan was his enemy. 6 

I. In him and of him he believed the follow- 
ing: 

*Luke xi. 21. "John viii. 44. 6 Matt. xiii. 39. 



60 The Creed of Christ. 

i. His personality. To Christ Satan was 
not a mere personification of an evil principle; 
he was the intelligent being from whom evil 
arose, and who revelled and ruled among his 
own ill-shapen offspring. "Ye are of your 
father the devil, and the lusts of your father 
ic is your will to do. He was a murderer from 
the beginning, and standeth not in the truth, 
because there is no truth in him. When he 
speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own ; for he 
is a liar, and the father thereof." 7 Nor did 
he in his views of Satan merely accommodate 
himself for purposes of teaching to the super- 
stitions of the Jewish people. The whole tone 
of the record 8 forbids this view, even if we 
could suppose a true man to be guilty of such 
a method. No, Satan was more to him than 
either of these ideas will allow. Christ ad- 
dresses him, and is addressed by him. 9 Christ 
assigns him powers of rule, 10 desires, 11 pas- 
sions, 12 actions with moral quality, 12 responsi- 
bility and condemnation. 13 These high attri- 
butes belong only to persons. These things 

7 John viii. 44. 8 Luke xxii. 31; Matt. x. 1, 8. 

9 Matt. iv. 1-11. 10 John xiv. 30. u Luke xxif. 31. 

12 John viii. 44. 13 John xii. 31: xvi. 11: Matt. xxv. 41. 



Satan. 6i 

constitute personality. And therefore, accord- 
ing to the form of the gospel narrative, Satan 
is just as truly a personal and an active agent 
as any of the men that are named, and is men- 
tioned oftener than most of them. 

2. Satan has high authority and power. He 
has a kingdom, which he rules and for which 
he labors. 14 In the sphere of this world that 
is Christless he is prince, 15 and men serve him. 
It is in his power to afflict with physical ills, 16 
and when permitted by God he can toss and 
expose to driving winds the children of men as 
easily as a stalwart man can sift the grains of 
wheat. 17 A host of evil spirits hear his com- 
mands and obey, 18 and men, called his children 
because they are under his power and are like 
him, fulfil his desires. 19 

3. His character is wholly evil. In fact, one 
of the names applied to him is the Evil One. 20 
He is so evil that Jesus, who spake truly even 
in the epithets which he applied, calls him liar 
and murderer. 12 He deceives and kills, and is 

14 Luke xi. 18-22. 1B John xii. 31. " Luke xiii. 16. 

"Luke xxii. 31. 18 Matt. xxv. 41. 

"John viif. 44; Matt. xvi. 23; John xiii. 27. 

20 John xvii. 15. 12 John viii. 44. 



62 The Creed of Christ. 

the source whence lying and killing spring. He 
deceives our hearts, and leaves them parched 
like a desert land that is dead. "Every one that 
drinketh of this water shall thirst again." 21 
He deceives our minds, and they wander into 
darkness, there to become blind, and then to 
stumble and to fall. 22 He deceives the pure, 
and their innocence perishes. He deceives 
the strong and young, and they spend their 
strength in vain pursuits, and having spent all, 
the famine comes and he leaves them to die. 23 
He is the father of lies, hatings and death, and 
the father of all such as do the things that make 
for falsehood and death. 24 A terrible monster 
is he, and yet this is Satan in the eye of Christ. 
This being his character, it is not surprising 
that he is represented by Christ as being op- 
posed to him in all things. He would destroy, 
if possible, what Jesus is doing. Jesus sows 
good seed, but when it is left exposed for a 
moment Satan snatches it away, 25 or comes in 
the night time and sows seed of quite another 
sort, so as to choke or pollute the Master's 



21 John vi. 13. 22 John xii. 35. 2S Luke xv. 14. 

24 John viii. 44. 25 Mark iv. 15. 



Satan. 63 

grain. 26 And not content with deeds like these, 
he rises into bitter enmity against Christ him- 
self. All his minions are against the Son of 
man. 27 Satan himself tries to seduce him, 28 
and failing, stirs up men with murder in their 
hearts to try to kill him. 29 Then, when the end 
of his life drew near, the prince of this world 
came, and Jesus felt his power. 30 Thus was 
Satan evil enough to stand in the way and to 
oppose the loving Christ. 

4. Jesus believed in the ultimate ruin of 
Satan. 31 Armed with a power which was 
God's — so truly God's that he calls it God's 
finger — Jesus had begun to enter the house of 
the strong man, and everywhere proved himself 
stronger than the opposing devil. 32 The prince 
of this world was already condemned, 33 and 
God's Spirit would prove to the world what 
Jesus already believed. 34 The kingdom of 
Satan was to him a waning kingdom. While 
his servants wrought, he was beholding Satan 
as lightning falling 35 ever toward a place and a 

20 Matt. xiii. 39. 27 Mark i. 24. 28 Matt. iv. 1-11. 

29 John vifi. 40, 41. 30 Luke xxii. 53. 31 Luke x. 18, 19. 

32 Luke xi. 20-22. 33 John xii. 31. 3 * John xvi. 8-11. 

35 Luke x. 18. 



64 The Creed of Christ. 

fire prepared for him and for all those that were 
his. 36 So steadfastly did Jesus believe this that 
he, conscious of the good beginning and in 
anticipation of the ultimate triumph, said to his 
friends, "Be of good cheer; I have over- 
come/ ' 37 

II. The Gospels leave no room to doubt that 
Jesus believed in such a personal devil, with 
such a character and such a doom. They also 
let. us see some of the effects which this belief 
had upon his daily life. 

i. He was in constant opposition to the 
powers of evil. The temptation 38 showed that 
there was nothing in common, either in their 
nature or in their plans, between Jesus and 
Satan. Christ occupied the position of an in- 
vader. 39 The temptation may be compared to 
a preliminary conference, in which Satan used 
every art in his power to seduce God's lieu- 
tenant from his purpose and his allegiance. 
The result was an open defiance on each side. 
They both understood that the war would go 
on, 40 and Satan learned that this time God had 

" Matt. xxv. 41. 8T John xvi. 33. M Matt. iv. 1-11. 

39 Luke xi. 22. *° Luke iv. 13. 



Satan. 65 

sent a messenger stronger than he. There was 
a quality in Jesus' person that seemed to force 
every demon that came near him to declare his 
own presence and to acknowledge the power of 
Christ. 41 Full well do they know that he will 
drive them out, and with harsh, stern words 
as to a beast, he silences them. 42 So unfailing 
is the opposition that in the parable, when the 
picture is of things gone wrong, he says, "An 
enemy hath done this." 43 

It is not always safe to measure the Spirit 
of Christ by our spirits, but if it is right to hate 
evil, he could do even this right thing more per- 
fectly than we, and the zeal which burned in 
him for his Father's honor, 44 burned against 
oppression and evil and found a conspicuous 
object in this enemy that was doing these 
things. 43 We stand in awe and are silent be- 
fore the passions which filled his heart at the 
end, when the victory was to cost him so much, 
and when he succumbed for an hour before the 
power of darkness. 45 This time, not by seduc- 
tion, but by bruising, does the devil try him. 



41 Matt. viii. 29; Mark i. 24, etc. « Mark i. 25. 

43 Mat. xiii. 28. ** John ii. 13-17. 45 Luke xxfi. 53. 



66 The Creed of Christ. 

Well do we know that Christ, all through his 
life, ceased not for a moment to resist evil, and 
we know that this enemy had much to do with 
the sad, weary life which he passed on the 
earth. 

2. One other effect of this faith we notice. 
The known hatred of Satan, the appreciation 
of his strength, the familiar weakness of his 
own people, awakened in the breast of Jesus the 
keenest sympathy for those who would be ex- 
posed to the endless attacks of an implacable 
foe. He knows their danger ; 46 he wishes them 
to stand. 47 Christ's experience brings his heart 
very near to the heart of a tempted man. He 
therefore instructs them daily to pray for the 
same strength that sheltered him, 48 and shows 
the importance which he attaches to this prayer 
by using the same petition when at the last he 
goes into the Father's presence on their be- 
half. 49 He descends even into particular cases, 
and prays for one man who shall be sorely 
tossed and broken, that his faith may not fail. 50 

Those who stand with Christ and believe 

46 .Matt. xxiv. 24; xxvi. 41. 4T John xvii. 11. 

48 Matt. vi. 13. 49 John xvii. 15. M Luke xxii. 32. 



Satan. 6j 

with him should hate where he hated, and 
surely we have double cause. Satan is the 
being who came upon the scene when our first 
father was fresh from God's hand, and living 
in innocence and joy. He changed that happy 
world to a world like this, where innocence is 
not found, and joy seldom comes ; and not that 
only, but when the good God in great com- 
passion sent to us a Saviour to bring us back 
to the fellowship and peace of the new adop- 
tion, Satan, implacable still above all beings, 
came to seduce our Saviour and to rob the 
world of its only hope. In this he failed, but 
he hated still, and at the end of Jesus' life he 
comes with all his dark power to crush him 
whom he could not seduce. Hate him? yes, 
and by God's grace I would love to hate him 
more. And when, in the end, his fall complete, 
my ever blessed King shall place his heel upon 
the serpent's head and bruise it, I want to be 
there to see the victory and to share the 
triumph. 



IV. 
Sin. 

"Ye then being evil." — Matt. vii. 11. 

TT is astonishing that upon this article of the 
■*■ creed of Jesus the whole world is not 
agreed. Jesus knew sin by observation; men 
know it by hard experience — yet it seemed a 
more dreadful thing to him than it does to 
them. This is to be accounted for by the fact 
that he, being rich in holiness and peace, was 
better able to measure the misery of those who 
are too poor and besotted to know their own 
lack, and by this other fact that he was able 
in his vision to take in the ultimate condition 
of a man when sin is finished and the wages 
are all paid. 

Now and then you find a man who, under the 
teaching of Jesus has been brought around to 
the view of Jesus; and to a man thus taught, 
one of the standing marvels is, how men can 
have any doubt upon this subject. To him it 



Sin. 69 

seems that the fang of the serpent is in the 
heart of the world. His hope is not in the non- 
existence of the poison, but in an antidote. 
The untaught ones, on the other hand, are de- 
ceived in two ways. The virus is of so strange 
a quality that it destroys the edge of suffering ; 
they lose the power to blush. Contrariwise, in 
some of its most deadly forms, sin actually 
makes show of perfect health. Like the dis- 
eased silk- worm, grown great above its fellows, 
and whose very size is an indication of ap- 
proaching dissolution, so the proud, self-right- 
eous, hypocritical man comforts himself with 
swellings of the heart, which are not signs of 
life, but of death. It is a mistake to think that 
the average man is hungry and longing for 
something holier than his present condition. 
Often he feels no pain, and often he glories in 
himself as having need of nothing. 

Nor is he left to himself in'taking this com- 
placent view. Certain teachers from opposite 
quarters come to him, and pitching their voices 
on the same key with his, make him think that 
already he sings well. The prophet of New- 
revelation and the prophet of No-revelation 



yo The Creed of Christ. 

practically agree. The one says, sin has no 
guilt, for it a sort of negation at best ; the Other 
says, sin has no guilt, for it is only a remnant 
of mere animal tendencies. The man listens 
to the so-called Christian Scientist, and learns 
that if he could only think little enough of sin 
to think it nothing, all would be well. He then 
listens to the natural scientist, who tells him 
that there has been no fall; that man is very 
praiseworthy for his present condition; and 
that a slight turn of the wheel of evolution is 
all that is needed to remove the imperfections 
of the lower orders of life which still cling to 
him. Thus do the conclusions of irreligion, no 
religion and high religion agree. 

Sin has all the multitude of forms that may 
arise from aiming at a wrong object * or from 
aiming awry at an object that is right. 2 Jesus 
did not make for us a complete catalogue of 
sins; but, in a general way, it is impossible to 
mistake his belief on this great subject. 

I. He believed men to be sinners. We prove 
the truth of this assertion in the following way : 

i. Men were not in the moral condition he 

1 Mark xii. 38-40; John v. 44. 2 Matt. vi. 5; xv. 7-9. 



Sin. 71 

desired them to be. The first recorded word of 
his public ministry is the cry, "Repent." 3 This 
word so spoken has no meaning except as a 
message to those who are perversely out of the 
way, and Jesus had no right to insult the holy 
with such an implication. Nor would he have 
a right to disturb the quiet of the world by such 
a cry, if all were well. With him the assump- 
tion was that men are evil, 4 and his purpose in 
coming to the world and living and dying, and 
sending forth a ministry to men, is thus ex- 
pressed, "To open their eyes, that they may 
turn from darkness to light, and from the 
power of Satan unto God, that they may re- 
ceive remission of sins, and an inheritance 
among them that are sanctified by faith in me" 
(Acts xxvi. 18.) 

Seeking, saving, healing, and these at infinite 
cost, that was the end of his human existence. 
'The Son of man came to seek and to save that 
which was lost." 5 "Himself took our infirmi- 
ties and bear our diseases." 6 "For the Son of 
man also came not to be ministered unto, but 

3 Matt. iv. 17. * Luke xi. 13; Matt. xfi. 34; Luke vi. 32-34. 
e Luke xix. 10. e Matt. viii. 17. 



*]2 The Creed of Christ. 

to minister, and to give his life a ransom for 
many." 7 

To him there was as much difference as 
there is to us between an Herodias and a Mary, 
a Judas and a John, and we can safely chal- 
lenge the world to show a single instance in 
which the "world" is set forth other than as 
an offence to his sense of justice 8 or as a bur- 
den upon his loving heart. 9 

2. The reasons why the world does not meet 
his view : Men are in darkness ; nor is this a 
mere misfortune, for they love the darkness 
and what the darkness hides. "This is the 
judgment, that light is come into the world, 
and men loved the darkness rather than the 
light; for their works were evil." 10 They are 
in ignorance of God, 11 which doubtless should 
awaken pity; but when they come to see God, 
they hate him, and hate Christ. "Every one 
that doeth evil hateth the light." 12 "Now have 
they both seen and hated both me and my 
Father." 13 And they hate his servants because 
they are different from the world. 14 The wills 

7 Mark x. 45. 8 Matt, xviii. 7. 9 John iii. 17. 

"John iii. 19. " Matt. xi. 27. n John iii. 20. 

"John xv. 24. "John xv. 19. 



Sin. 73 

of men are averse from God, 15 and they have 
given their allegiance to God's enemy, the devil, 
who has come to bear such a relation to men 
that he may be called their father. 16 And men 
are like him, and they do his lusts, 17 and these 
lusts defile. 18 

So painful is the truth that men hate God's 
messenger Who declares it. "Me the world 
hateth, because I testify of it, that its works 
are evil." 19 "If the world hateth you, ye know 
that it hath hated me before it hated you." 20 
And so deep-rooted is the disease that, as he 
points out to Nicodemus, 21 the very nature of 
man is wrong and in need of a divine trans- 
formation. "Ye must be born anew." No 
teaching, though the teacher be come from 
God — no physical wonder, like the restoration 
to the comparative innocence of childhood, can 
overcome the inflexible law, "That which is 
born of the flesh is flesh." 22 

II. Concerning this condition of men, which 
brought Christ Jesus into the world, and made 



15 John v. 40. 16 John viii. 38. u John vfii. 44. 

18 Matt. xv. 18-20. 19 John vii. 7; viii. 40. 20 John xv. 18. 

21 John iii. 1-14. 22 John iii. 6. 



74 The Creed of Christ. 

him "a man of sorrows," the following state- 
ments seem clear: 

1. However the complaint may be defined, 
he considered the evil to be a quality not of 
actions only, but of persons. There is some- 
thing in the tree that determines the character 
of the fruit. 23 Strong men are usually exact 
in their speech. To Jesus, men not only did 
evil things, but were themselves evil, 24 blind, 25 
hypocritical, 26 unclean, 27 wicked, 28 lost. 29 Thus, 
back of the evil deeds, he saw the evil man, 
and came, not to stop the evil-doing simply, but 
to save the man. 

2. This evil quality attached, not to the body 
only, but to the spirit. In vain we search for 
any view of Christ by which a sin may be ex- 
cused because it is only in the flesh. Evil de- 
sires spring from the heart, 27 and set on fire 
even those passions that are called animal. 
Every temptation is first in the mind, and 
through the mind, the imagination, does it 
affect the body. 28 It is indeed the attitude of 

23 Matt. vii. 17, 18. 24 Matt. vii. 11; xii. 45. 

26 Matt. xv. 14; 26 Matt, xxiii. 13, etc. 

27 Matt. xv. 19; John viii. 7. 28 Matt. xiii. 49; v. 28. 

29 Matt. xv. 24; Luke xix. 10. 



Sin. 75 

the mind or heart that determines in every case 
whether an action be good or bad. 30 Mani- 
festly, the same bodily action may be either. 
But evil in the mind's eye will make one see 
evil, 31 and evil in the mind's ear will make us 
hear amiss. 32 ''Take heed therefore how ye 
hear." 33 

3. The evil quality attaching both to the 
action arid to the person is not a mere absence 
of good, but a very positive and real thing — 
so real that it can produce physical effects, dis- 
ease and death, 34 — so real that it can defile the 
whole man, 35 changing the character, not only 
of that which he produces from within, 36 but 
even the view that he will take of that which 
appeals to him from without. 37 

Why not say that good is a mere negation ? 
The absence of evil? Certainly the active 
power in evil is just as marked as are the active 
qualities in good. In the parable of Jesus, 38 
the wolf has qualities of its own — cruelty and 

80 Matt. vi. 5; xii. 34. 81 Matt. vi. 23. 

82 Mark iv. 12; John viii. 43. 33 Luke viif. 18. 

34 John v. 14; viii. 24; Luke xiii. 3. 85 Mark vii. 23. 

36 Luke vi. 45. 87 Matt. vi. 23; xx. 15. 

38 Luke x. 3; Matt. vii. 15. 



j6 The Creed of Christ. 

thirst for blood. He is not simply not a lamb, 
he is a wolf. The characteristics of the tares 
are just as distinct as the characteristics of the 
wheat. The tares are not simply not wheat, 
they have harmful qualities of their own. 39 
Avarice is more active than generosity, and 
hate burns as truly as does love. The sunshine 
and rain that make for health are no more real 
than are the thousand foes that threaten to de- 
vour every living thing. Darkness might be 
described as the absence of light, and death as 
the absence of life, but the mighty revolution 
which hides the sun and produces the one, and 
the dread pestilence that produces the other are 
very real things indeed. In this sense, lust and 
avarice and hate are among the facts of the 
world; great, devouring passions which grow 
by that on which they feed — the lives and 
souls of men. That which changes men to 
devils, and teaches men to do the devil's work, 40 
cannot be a mere negation. That which com- 
passed the death of Jesus Christ, 41 we cannot 
call unreal. 

Certainly Jesus believed himself to be fight- 

39 Matt. xffl. 41. 40 John viii. 44. "Acts ii. 23. 



The Creed of Christ. jy 

ing a real battle with real foes. The judgment, 
of a part in a deathless feud, was of old upon 
him, 42 and he lived conscious of the opposition 
that was felt and shown, with increasing force, 
as he, with set face, went on. 43 Perhaps a mis- 
sionary in a heathen land can best know the 
mingled feelings of love, 44 of self-devotion, 45 
of pity even to tears, 46 and yet of almost defiant 
complaint against wilful injustice, 47 and a cer- 
tain looking-for of a glorious vindication in 
the end, 48 which filled the heart of Jesus. 

If men had been holy, none of the work of 
Jesus would have been necessary. "They that 
are whole have no need of a physician, but they 
that are sick : I came not to call the righteous, 
but sinners." 49 He begins his work with a 
cry, "Repent" ; 50 he ends his instructions with 
a message of remission of sins. 51 Men are sin- 
ners, therefore in pity and love he came. Men 
are sinners, therefore they made him suffer so. 
His knowledge, and now his experience, com- 
bine to make Jesus believe that men are sinners. 

"Gen. fii. 15. "Mark viii. 31. "John xv. 13. 

"John x. 18. "Luke xix. 41. "John vii. 28. 

" Mark xiv. 62. *• Mark ii. 17. w Matt. iv. 17. 

"Luke xxiv. 47. 



V. 

Punishment for Sin. 

"And these shall go away into eternal punishment." 
Matthew xxv. 46. 

Q CHILLER speaks of a curtain let down at 
^ the extremities of human life, before which 
the whole race stands guessing what lies be- 
yond. I take it to be a prudent thing to listen 
to the voice of the only one who has come 
from the other side to tell us what lies over 
there. 1 Our guess, influenced by selfishness, or 
even by charity, may be very wrong. 

All situations where love for men and loyalty 
to righteousness seem to be in conflict are very 
trying to a conscientious man. He wishes to 
think and to do what is right, but he shrinks 
from doing what is unkind; and sometimes, 
when a man has, through a tender kindness, 
sacrificed the right, he even congratulates him- 
self upon the breadth of his love. But men 

x John viii. 42: xvi. 28. 



Punishment for Sin. 79 

despise as weak the character that is too kind 
to be just. Jesus was very loving and very 
tender, but he was very strong. While his 
heart was full of love, his view took in man's 
responsibility and God's righteousness. "The 
Son of man shall come in the glory of his 
Father with his angels; and then shall he 
render to every man according to his deeds." 2 
And nothing is clearer than that he believed a 
fearful doom to be hanging over men because 
of Sin. 3 The kind-hearted guesses of men have 
taken four forms ; one holding that the suffer- 
ings of this life, with the added pains of death, 
suffice to turn the hearts of all men to God, so 
that the mercy of God opens heaven to all who 
thus suffer. We might inquire how it is known 
that these sufferings turn men to God, and we 
might inquire into the reasonableness of 
Christ's suffering so much, if any other suffer- 
ing would accomplish for men the same object. 
This view denies any suffering after death. 

Another view admits the justice of a suffer- 
ing for sin, but denies that it is eternal. The 
reason for this denial is not that the Scriptures 

2 Matt. xvi. 27. 3 Matt, xviii. 6; xxi. 44. 



80 The Creed of Christ. 

do not teach eternal punishment, but that such 
a penalty seems too great, and that after 
enough has been endured, all will be restored 
to joy and to favor. Aside from the Saviour's 
clear teaching, to which we shall presently 
come, it may be worth while to remark that 
there is no evidence, by analogy or otherwise, 
to show that an evil and rebellious soul ceases 
to be evil and rebellious in the world to come. 
"An eternal sin" (Mark iii. 29) would imply 
an eternal sinner. And if only one day's suffer- 
ing were needed to atone for one day's sin, then 
the sin of that suffering day would demand 
another day of suffering still, and thus, without 
a Saviour, the chain would never be broken. 

Still another view, realizing that to treat the 
evil like the good would not be right, believes 
in the annihilation of the evil. This view can 
perhaps bring forward more plausible support 
from Scripture than the other two ; but unless 
an adequate punishment preceded this strange 
issue, neither would this be right. Annihila- 
tion, if conceivable, must be conceived as a 
"sleep in which there is not even a dream." 
In one view, that of the miserable, this is rest, 



Punishment for Sin. 8i 

not punishment. In another view, that of a 
heart with hope, this would be a terrible pun- 
ishment, and it would be eternal. 

Still a fourth scheme has been presented 
which seeks much support from Scripture, 
and whose purpose seems to be to repre- 
sent God's dealings with men under the 
forms of love alone. This scheme is called 
the doctrine of Conditional Immortality, and 
teaches that all men are by nature mortal, 
both in body and in spirit, and that they 
only become immortal when touched by Jesus 
Christ. A little further reading among 
the words of Jesus will show that this view 
does not accord with the picture which he 
draws. In fact, for this view to prevail, some 
of his clearest words must be disregarded or 
counted untrue. Certainly he calls himself the 
Judge as well as the Saviour. When we stop 
to consider that justice also is a divine thing, 
is there really any call for us to attempt to 
make out Jesus better than he represents him- 
self to be ? 

These four views we call guesses, because the 
source of the teaching is in the human heart 



82 The Creed of Christ. 

and mind. And now, without any theory to 
present, and with a desire to submit even the 
impulses of the heart to the teaching of Jesus 
Christ, we wish to show as accurately as pos- 
sible what he believed on this awful subject. 

I. He evidently believed that some bad result 
would follow a course of sin, and he describes 
this result as made up of three elements. 

i. There would be loss — loss of God's gifts 
already bestowed, 4 loss of all the gifts that he 
himself was bringing, 5 loss of all the riches that 
are wrapped in the glorious promises. Here is 
a promise : "I go to prepare a place for you." 6 
But to some he says, "Whither I go ye cannot 
come." 7 There is no word of blessing to men 
of a particular sort which does not mean that 
men of the opposite sort shall miss that bless- 
ing. "Blessed are the pure in heart." 8 But 
suppose a man is not pure in heart? He does 
not promise life and hope and love to all, but 
to men of definite characteristics. "Verily, 
verily, I say unto you, He that believeth hath 
eternal life." 9 But suppose a man does not 

4 Matt. xxv. 29. 5 Matt. v. 20; John vi. 53. "John xiv. 2. 
7 John vfii. 21. 8 Matt. v. 8. 9 John vi. 47. 



Punishment for Sin. 83 

believe ? To miss these things is to suffer loss. 
"I pray not for the world." 10 

2. The second element in this evil result may- 
be described as the natural consequences of sin, 
only we must remember that God is the one 
who constitutes the connection between the sin 
and the consequence, and guarantees that the 
one shall follow the other. Men are already 
in a condition from which they need to be 
rescued, and failing a change in their prospects, 
certain physical and moral ills will follow, and 
should be expected to follow. 11 After the light 
has shined, darkness is deeper than it was be- 
fore. 12 The blind will fall, 13 pollution will de- 
file. 14 "If ye believe not that I am he, ye shall 
die in your sins;" 15 "Sin no more, lest a worse 
thing come upon thee." 16 

3. One would think that to have no blessing 
from God was bad; 17 that to be subject to the 
bondage of sin, 18 and simply left to eat its fruit, 
was bad ; but Jesus believed in a third element 
of evil in the form of a judicial sentence at the 



"John xvii. 9. u Matt. vi. 23. 12 John xv. 22. 

13 Matt. xv. 14. " Matt. xv. 19, 20. 15 John viii. 24. 
18 John v. 14. " John xiii. 8. 18 John viii. 34. 



8 4 



The Creed of Christ. 



bar of a supreme personal Judge. 19 If loss and 
natural consequence were all, what power would 
there be in repentance to change the result? 20 
If God were not displeased, why should he 
speak at all of forgiveness and mercy? 21 God 
measures with an even, 22 yet retributive, 
hand. 23 There is a day of solemn judgment, 24 
and God has power to inflict the sentence. 25 
The messengers of God, with unerring dis- 
crimination, shall gather out all that offend and 
do evil. 26 Men of a certain sort, Jesus will 
himself deny; 27 and in the end having by a 
review of their life separated the world into 
two parts, 28 shall, under the rule of rendering 
to every man according to his deeds, 29 banish 
the one part from his presence forever. 30 And 
thus in places too numerous to quote, did Jesus 
hold up the belief that the infinitely righteous 
God would in a definite time 31 meet the world, 
and that in that day the wicked and rebellious 
would go down in shame to a sentence divinely 
pronounced and divinely inflicted. "Be not 

19 Matt. xxv. 31. 20 Luke xiii. 3. a Matt. vi. 14, 15. 

22 Matt. vii. 2. 23 Matt, xvfii. 35. 2 * Matt. xii. 36. 

26 Matt. x. 28. 26 Matt. xiii. 41. "Matt. x. 33. 

28 Matt. xxv. 33. M Matt. xvi. 27. 80 Matt. xxv. 41. 
31 Matt. x. 15. 



Punishment for Sin. 85 

afraid of them that kill the body, and after that 
have no more that they can do. But I will 
forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him 
who after he hath killed hath power to cast into 
hell; yea, I say unto you; Fear him." 32 

This third element in the result of sin is 
really the important one, for herein are em- 
braced the responsibility of men and the 
authority of God. 33 If there were no God at 
all, the first result would follow. If nature 
were our only God, and nature's laws the whole 
of his will, the second result would follow. It 
is Christian Theism — The God who is the 
Father of Jesus Christ, the God whom he loved, 
in whom he believed, and whose character he 
revealed — that tells us of a judicial sentence 
pronouncing adequate penalty upon the evil- 
doer. 

II. Of this result of sin as penalty, Jesus be- 
lieved — 

1. That when the judgment was once ren- 
dered the doom was fixed. No cry from with- 
out would open the door that had been shut; 34 
no intercession of friends would save the man 

23 Luke xii. 4, 5. M Matt. xii. 36, 37. 84 Matt. xxv. 11, 12. 



86 The Creed of Christ. 

from loss; 35 no answering back would shake 
the judgment given. 36 The separation would 
be made, 37 and made even forcibly, 38 and the 
gulf that marks the separation is impassable. 
"And besides all this, between us and you there 
is a great gulf fixed, that they -that would pass 
from hence to you may not be able, and that 
none may cross over from thence to us." 39 

2. Jesus believed the penalty which God 
would count the just due of sin a very terrible 
thing. Here we must understand that such a 
man as Jesus would not suffer his most figura- 
tive words to be other than true figures. Not 
even the rhetoric of Jesus is false. So terrible 
is this penalty, that God sent him, and he will- 
ingly came that men might escape it. "God so 
loved the world that he gave his only begotten 
Son, that whosoever believeth on him should 
not perish." 40 So great is it, that men might 
endure anything, loss of property, 41 of bodily 
members, 42 of life, 43 of existence, 44 rather than 
endure this. It is "outer darkness," 45 a "parch- 

35 Luke xix. 25. 3 Matt. xxv. 44, 45. 

37 Matt. xiii. 41; xxv. 32. 38 Matt. xiii. 42; xxv. 30. 

38 Luke xvi. 26. 40 John fii. 16. 41 Mark viii. 36. 
42 Matt. v. 29, 30. 43 Matt. x. 39. ** Matt. xxvi. 24. 

45 Matt. viii. 12. 



Punishment for Sin. 87 

ing thirst," 46 a "gnawing worm," 47 a "burn- 
ing fire." It is death; 48 it is hell. 49 

3. He also believed that this awful condition 
lasts. The unforgiving man shall not be for- 
given; 50 the "fire is not quenched"; 51 "their 
worm dieth not" ; 52 the "fire is eternal." 53 The 
doom lasts just as long as the bliss of the right- 
eous lasts, and the word that he uses for both 
is the word "eternal." "And these shall go 
away into eternal punishment : but the right- 
eous into eternal life." 54 

III. The grounds of all punishment are the 
same. The judicial punishment of a day would 
rest upon the same justification as the punish- 
ment of a thousand years. Jesus mentions two 
reasons why sin will be visited with evil. 

1. The first is the law of retribution. If one 
makes a debt, he ought to pay it. 55 The unfor- 
giving man ought not to be forgiven, 56 and will 
not be. 50 He who trips up a weak and unof- 
fending child ought to suffer for it. 57 The 
wicked man who swallows down the sub- 

46 Luke xvi. 24. 47 Mark ix. 48. 48 John viii. 51. 

49 Matt, xxiii. 33. 50 Matt. vi. 15. 51 Mark ix. 43. 

62 Mark ix. 48. 53 Matt, xviif. 8. 54 Matt. xxv. 46. 

55 Luke xii. 58. 5C Matt, xviii. 35. 57 Matt, xviii. 6. 



88 The Creed of Christ. 

stance of an unprotected widow must receive 
greater condemnation. 58 The betrayer of Jesus 
deserves bitterness and woe. 59 It is right, and 
only right, that a man should receive according 
to his deeds. 60 Woe, seven times repeated, 61 
has been pronounced against the Scribes and 
Pharisees, hypocrites, by the lips of a righteous 
man. We think that God has made men so 
that the judgment of the average man will coin- 
cide with the judgment of Jesus when he denies 
the man that denies him, and banishes those 
who are evil from his presence. "Whosoever 
shall deny me before men, him will I also deny 
before my Father who is in heaven." 62 De- 
part from me, ye cursed." 63 We cannot con- 
ceive that it would be right for John and Judas 
to be treated just alike. 

2. The other fact out of which grows the 
inevitable punishment of the wicked is, that 
God will some day cause truth to be vindicated. 
It will be a bad day for darkness when every- 
where the glorious light shall shine. 64 When 



68 Mark xii. 40. w Matt. xxvi. 24. M Matt. xvi. 27. 

61 Matt, xxiii. 13-29. 62 Matt. x. 33. S3 Matt. xxv. 41. 

84 John fii. 20. 



Punishment for Sin. 89 

God shall suddenly arise to avenge his own 
elect, 65 the oppressor and seducer shall be forced 
to loose their prey. However exalted Jesus is, 
whither he goes they cannot come. 66 When the 
Son of man shall come in the glory of his 
Father and all the holy angels with him, 67 as 
come he will, and the persecutors and crucifiers 
shall see him, 68 as see him they will, surely 
shame like the shame of the defeated, and a 
pang like the pang of the dying, shall come to 
them. 69 

The revelation of the Son of man in his true 
character will foe like a raging flood 70 or a con- 
suming fire, 71 and the tribes of men shall 
mourn. 72 And when his reign is established, 
it will be with the breaking of all traitorous 
opposition. 73 Not all will be able to stand erect 
before him when he cometh. 74 How can the 
wicked escape punishment, if they simply get 
their dues, 75 and if some day the right shall be 
gloriously exalted ? 76 Certainly even the com- 



G5 Luke xviii. 7. "John viii. 2. "Matt. xvi. 27; xxv. 31. 
08 Matt. xxvi. 64. 69 Rev. vi. 16. 70 Matt. xxiv. 37-39. 

71 Luke xviii. 28-30. 72 Matt. xxiv. 30. 

"Luke xix. 14-27; xxi. 25-28. 74 Luke xxi. 36. 

75 Matt. xvi. 27. 78 John xvi. 33; xvii. 5. 



90 The Creed of Christ. 

ing of Jesus changed not the character of God. 
He is righteous still. 77 

IV. Of this dread doctrine the speech of 
Jesus is full. In the sermon on the mount, 78 
in parables or interpretation of parables, 79 in 
warning words, 80 in prophecy of the future, 81 
as often as he spoke of sin or of sinners, this 
thought came as substance or as shadow to his 
wonderful words, and how he felt is not hard 
to see. 

He thought the rapacious Scribe ought to be 
condemned. 82 He thanks his Father for his 
righteous sovereignty ; 83 states how that Father 
will visit evil for sin, 84 and announces that 
when he comes to the station of Judge, his sen- 
tence will be like God's sentence in all re- 
spects. 85 His anger burned against those who 
in pretended zeal for the law violated the law> 86 
and though his heart was full of a great love 
for men, 87 he yet longed for the setting up of 
a righteous kingdom, 88 and for the vindication 

"John xvii. 25. 78 Matt. v. 29. 79 Matt. xiii. 39-42. 
80 Matt. xi. 22; Luke xfi. 5. 81 Matt. xxv. 31-46. 

82 Luke xx. 47. 83 Matt. xi. 25-26. 8 * Matt, xviii. 35. 
85 John v. 27-30. 86 Matt, xxiii. 33; Mark iii. 5. 

87 Matt, xxiii. 37. 88 John xii. 31,32. 



Punishment for Sin. 91 

of his true character before the world. 89 He, 
greater than Solomon or than Jonah, is de- 
spised. 90 He, a prisoner, stands before the bar 
of a wicked Judge, and his thoughts go out to 
the glorious day of manifestation. 91 It will 
cost the cities that despised him much. 92 It will 
overwhelm the wicked Judge. But he longs for 
the revelation of his glory, all the same. 93 This 
is not cruelty in Gdd. Sin makes us to deserve 
the ill. This is not cruelty in Jesus. He in the 
very speaking, is filled with a deep love that will 
cause him to lay down his life for these doomed 
ones. Men choose the sin, and sin is their great 
enemy, not God and not Christ. 

89 John xvii. 4, 5, 23. *° Matt. xh\ 41, 42. 81 Matt. xxvi. 64. 
M Matt. xi. 21. 83 John xviii. 36, 37. 



VI. 

Himself. 

"I that speak unto thee am he." — John iv. 26. 
"Even if I bear witness of myself, yet my witness is 
true." — John viii. 14. 

A CONFESSION: "Gladly, thou divine 
•*■ *• Son of Mary, had I said something great 
of thee. At times I thought I saw in the flash- 
ing light of a blessed hour thy divine majesty 
adorned in spotless purity ; but as I was about 
to fix the holy vision, the pencil trembled in 
my unskilled hand, and I could give only a pale 
outline. Who are we that attempt to describe 
thy holiness?" — Pressense. 

The undertaking of a great enterprise by a 
great man is always a profitable study. Several 
questions may be asked : What is the work that 
he undertakes to do? What moves him to 
undertake this work? What methods does he 
use ? Why does he, rather than another of his 
time, undertake the work to which he devotes 
himself? To answer all these questions is to 



Himself. 93 

answer this other question, What thinks this 
great man of himself ? And if the work is very 
great, and the man is very courageous, so that 
we can trace through his whole career a sublime 
confidence in a self-wrought success, we say: 
This man believed in himself. It seems that in 
this respect the faith of Jesus never wavered. 
If there ever was a man upon earth that be- 
lieved he saw a great work to be done, and that 
he was the man to do it, that man was Jesus 
Christ. "My meat is to do the will of him 
that sent me and to accomplish his work." * 

We have seen that in his view men were sin- 
ners, 2 and that because of that sad fact, coupled 
with his knowledge of the moral government 
of God, he believed a great doom to be hanging 
over men. 3 Here, then, is a right worthy enter- 
prise, to deliver men from that awful doom, 4 
to cause them to cease forever being sinners in 
the sight of God, 5 and to bring them so into 
life and favor that they shall be children of 
God in a new and gracious sense. 6 In a word, 
to pierce that dark cloud of doom by a shining 

^ohn iv. 34. a See Chap. IV. "See Chap. V. 

4 John iii. 16. B John viii. 34-36. 8 -Matt. v. 9; Luke vi. 35. 



94 The Creed of Christ. 

pathway leading from each man's door straight 
up to the footstool of God's eternal throne. 
"Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye shall see the 
heaven opened, and the angels of God ascend- 
ing and descending upon the Son of man." 7 
I know of no man who would for a moment 
suppose that it was in his power to do this great 
thing. How comes it that Jesus found it in his 
heart to think that this was his work? And 
that he would succeed ? 

It ought to be stated that there is with him 
no casting about for a business. The work he 
did is what he came to do. 8 God loved men, 4 
and he loved them as God did, 9 and God ap- 
pointed him to this mission, 10 and caused him 
to be born into the world that he might fulfil 
it. 11 We first find him a babe, a boy, a man, 
and he seems quite like other men; but soon 
there shines out a faith, a courage, a power that 
lifts him up, and he is no more like ourselves, 
but like God. He is God ! Even the men who 
saw his human form and suffering, and had 
their difficulties increased thereby, could con- 

7 John i. 51. 8 Luke iv. 43. "John xv. 9. 

10 John x. 36. "John xvifi. 37. 



Himself. 95 

fess him so to be. 12 Wondrous combination, 
true and preeminent manhood, 13 coupled with 
real and conscious divinity! 14 The Son of 
man, with affections, pains and members like 
other men, and yet with that admirable con- 
sciousness of power than enabled him to stand 
upon a tossing boat and to see without surprise 
the waves shrink, quivering, into peace before 
his mild rebuke. 15 Had I thus spoken, and had 
the sea thus obeyed, astonishment would have 
overwhelmed me; but with Jesus such po'wer 
seems no strange thing. He counts himself 
God's equal, 16 and teaches men to honor him 
as they honor the ever-living God. 17 A good 
man does not knowingly teach the ignorant an 
untrue thing. 

I. Jesus, then, believed himself to be the Mes- 
siah. We have said that with him there was 
no appearance of looking for work, or of inde- 
cision as to whether he was the one to do the 
work when found. Long time before he had 
dwelt in glory with the Father. 18 God had 
commissioned him to a great task, 19 and had 

"John xx. 28. 13 Matt. viii. 20. "John x. 30. 

15 Mark iv. 39. 16 John v. 19. "John v. 23. 

18 John xvii. 5. 19 John x. 36. 



g6 The Creed of Christ. 

sent others to tell the world of one anointed 
for the service. 20 Even the humblest of the 
people could say, "I know that Messias 
cometh ;" 21 and when all is ready, Jesus stands 
forth and says, "I that speak unto thee am 
he/' 22 He was the Messiah when the plan was 
first conceived. He was the Messiah when the 
promise was made and repeated, and when, in 
after days, men were straining their eyes to dis- 
cover him; and when he actually came into 
the world, he did not have to say, "I am going 
to take up this undone work and do it, and 
thus become the Messiah for men" — he said, 
"I am the Messiah" ; "And because I am what 
I am, I am ordained of God and pressed in my 
own spirit to fulfil the task." 

So, if any one ask, "How did Jesus come to 
think of himself as the Messiah?" the answer 
is that he was not formed upon the Messiah 
idea as revealed, but the reverse is true — the 
Messiah ideas and promises grew out of him 
and his undertaking. His task was not to 
assure his own heart, but to get others to be- 
lieve as he did. His faith was so clear that 

30 Luke xxiv. 44. a John iv. 25 ^John iv. 26. 



Himself. 97 

the doubts of others could not shake it. To 
the woman of Samaria he asserts the fact that 
he concerning whom the prophets had been 
talking was now come. 22 To his friend, John 
the Baptist, who is in trouble and begins to 
doub't, he reveals his great power, in order to 
reassure the doubting heart. 23 On the confes- 
sion of this faith he founds his church, 24 and, 
strange to say, God brought it about that he is 
finally condemned under this specific charge. 
They sought other faults, but found none, 25 
and Jesus, the Messiah, dies because he makes 
this claim. "I adjure thee by the living God, 
that thou tell us whether thou art the Christ, 
the Son of God." And Jesus answered, "I am, 
and ye shall see the Son of man sitting at the 
right han'd of Power and coming with the 
clouds of heaven." 26 

II. Being the Messiah involved with him at 
least three duties or forms of activity. These 
duties are also of such a sort that only he can 
discharge them. He places himself as an abso- 
lutely essential quantity in human life. "Ex- 
cept ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and 

22 John iv. 26. 23 Matt. xi. 2-6. u Matt. xvi. 16-18. 
26 Mark xiv. 55-59. 28 Mark xiv. 62. 



98 The Creed of Christ. 

drink his blood, ye have not life in your- 
selves." 27 He stands between men and God. 
""I am the way, and the truth, and the life : no 
one cometh unto the Father but by me." 28 
And their fate turns upon their relation to him. 
"Every one therefore who shall confess me be- 
fore men, him will I also confess before my 
Father who is in heaven. But Whosoever shall 
deny me before men, him will I also deny 
before my Father who is in heaven." 29 

1. He brings a message and a revelation. 

The message is of God's great love, yearning 
over men, and calling them to a restless dis- 
content with their estrangement from him; 
such a discontent as will lead them to turn from 
all evil, to come into the light, and to walk in 
it "God so loved the world." 30 "Repent 
ye." 31 "He that doeth truth cometh to the 
light, that his works may be made manifest that 
they are wrought in God." 32 

The revelation is of the great God himself. 
He alone of men knows God, and only he can 
teach this knowledge to others. 33 He shows 

27 John vi. 53. 28 John xiv. 6. 29 Matt. x. 32, 33. 

M John HI. 16. 31 Matt. iv. 17. 32 John iii. 21. 

33 Matt. xi. 27. 



Himself. 99 

men plainly of the Father, 34 and so competent 
is he for this, and so divine, that when a man 
knows him, he has already known God. 35 So 
confident is he of his place as the world's great 
teacher, that he presumes to speak with abso- 
lute authority. "The words that I have spoken 
unto you are spirit, and are life." 36 The earn- 
estness and sincerity of his speech thrilled the 
hearts even of his enemies. 37 No such teaching 
as his had ever been heard before. 38 His "I 
say unto you" was supreme. 39 He also deemed 
his message to be urgent, for he tarries not for 
men to come to him, but going from city to 
city, he teaches and preaches with the same 
commanding spirit. 

2. There is not only a Messiah message, but 
a Messiah life. 40 The form that that life would 
take had long been a matter of debate. How 
is the life of a Messiah to differ from the lives 
of other men ? Is he king, with kingly retinue, 
or is he a suffering servant of the world? In 
his day, all the readers of all the prophecies had 
failed to find the answer. 41 Prominent he puts 

"John xvi. 25. 35 Johnxiv. 9. 38 John vi. 63. 

37 Matt. vii. 28, 29; xiii. 54. 38 John vii. 46. 

39 Matt. v. 22 ("I" emphatic). 40 Matt. ix. 35. 

41 John vii. 25-44. 



ioo The Creed of Christ. 

the delivery of a gracious message to needy 
ones. ''I must preach the good tidings of the 
kingdom of God to the other cities also; for 
therefore was I sent." 42 But it is more; he 
is to heal the broken-hearted by getting close to 
the burdened ones — lifting up their loads of 
ill, and making their sorrows his own. "J esus 
wept." 43 And it is not sympathy alone that 
he brings, but sight, 44 and health, 45 and life and 
forgiveness of sin. 47 

The Messiah's life belongs to the world. "I 
am the light of the world." 48 We read not of 
anything done for his own comfort and ease. 
His was a kingly heart, ofttimes doing things 
with spirit high enough 49 — but chiefly did he 
count the world's Messiah to be the world's ser- 
vant. 50 He touched the sores and filth of men 
as humbly as a servant ; 51 he healed and 
cleansed them as royally as God. 52 A kingly 
heart, doing humble things for a high pur- 
pose 53 — this was the manner of Jesus' life, 
and he lived as a Messiah ought to live. 

"Luke iv. 43. " John xi. 35. "Luke fv. 18. 

"Matt. ix. 35. 46 John x. 10. "Matt. ix. 6. 

48 John viif. 12. * fi John ii. 15. w Matt. xx. 28. 

61 Matt. viii. 3; John xiii. 5. 52 Matt. viii. 3. 

"John xiii. 15. 



Himself. ioi 

These two features of the Messiah's work 
touch ignorance and sorrow and sickness ; but 
these things, while bad enough, are themselves 
indications of a worse disease, and that disease 
is sin. The teachings of Jesus, and the unself- 
ish life of Jesus, would have alleviated in many 
ways the condition of men, but even his teach- 
ings an'd example would have been insufficient 
for this greater task of bringing in salvation 
from sin. Had he done ten times the amount 
of that sort of work, the grain of wheat would 
have still abided alone. 54 So, to his mind, 
neither his teaching nor 'his life were the essen- 
tial things, but — 

3. His death. "And I, if I be lifted up from 
the earth, will draw all men unto myself." 55 
In the death lies the power. The message and 
the life all tend to the supreme sacrifice. They 
explain the death, and the death gives color to 
them. By the first he seeks; by the last he 
saves. Early he showed his knowledge of the 
fact that he must be lifted up, 56 but it is only 
after he had wrought into the hearts of his fol- 
lowers the sublime faith that he was the 

M John xii. 24. 65 John xii. 32. M John 'if. 14. 



102 The Creed of Christ. 

Christ B7 that immediately he begins to open 
his heart still further and to show that there 
was a necessity upon him to die. 58 He must 
go to Jerusalem, not to teach and probably to 
die, but he must go there purposely to die ; and 
when his friend would dissuade him from his 
purpose, he rebukes Peter most harshly for 
ignorance and Satan-'likeness. 59 

The great fact stands out as pressing upon 
his mind, and casting its shadow forward to 
darken the way as he went on to meet it. He 
tells his disciples as they journey toward the 
city, 60 at the anointing, 61 at the last supper — 
the Shepherd about to be smitten tells them, out 
of his store of Bible knowledge, that God had 
caused it so to be written. 62 The fact he fore- 
knew, 63 and the manner of death's coming, 64 
and the reason ; 65 and death came upon him 
in a way fully to justify his forebodings. The 
increasing drea'd with which he advanced into 
the increasing darkness shows that either his 
death meant more, or that his courage was less 



C7 Matt. xvi. 16, 20. E8 Matt, xvi. 21. 59 Matt, xvi. 23. 
60 Matt. xx. 17, 18. 61 Matt. xxvi. 12. 62 Matt. xxvi. 31. 
C3 Matt. xvi. 21. 64 John xii. 33. 65 Matt. xx. 28. 



Himself. 103 

than that of some other men who have passed 
that way. 66 Still, he dies like no other man. 
No one could take away his life, he being un- 
willing. "I lay it down of myself." 67 He was 
bound, not by fetters, but by a sanctified pur- 
pose, dedicating him to loyalty and to love. 
''The cup which the Father hath given me, 
shall I not drink it?" 68 "The good shepherd 
layeth down his life for the sheep." 69 

It has been seen that his whole life of service 
was a message and an example, and a burden- 
bearing ; but it is equally clear that in his view, 
if he had failed to die, his whole mission would 
have been a failure. "Therefore doth the 
Father love me because I lay down my life that 
1 may take it again." 70 "Thus it is written, 
that the Christ should suffer, and rise again 
from the dead the third day ; and that repent- 
ence and remission of sins should be preached 
in his name unto all the nations." 71 The giv- 
ing of his life had a definite meaning to him. 
Led by the purpose to weaken the doctrine of 
his sacrificial death, some think that they are 

66 Luke xxii. 44. 67 John x. 18. 68 John xvifi. 15. 

66 Luke xxii. 44. C7 John x. 18. 68 John xviii. 11. 



104 The Creed of Christ. 

teaching truth when they assert that the "giv- 
ing of his life" meant what those words might 
mean in the indefinite English, if one should 
say a man gave his life to a cause ; that is, gave 
the whole course of his life. Let it be noted 
that in Greek there are three words which 
mean life: /&'oc, 72 meaning the course of life, 
or one's active existence; ^wtj , 73 meaning the 
life principle, or life in the abstract ; and $u%j f u 
meaning the life that is lost with the pouring 
out of the blood. It is life in this last sense 
that one may stake in battle, or give for his 
country. It is this idea of life, the word (potf, 
which in the Gospels is used with the possessive 
pronouns; and this is the life which Jesus 
speaks of when he says, "I lay down my 
life." 75 No man ever gave himself in service 
with more untiring devotion than he. But this 
is not What was in his mind when he spoke of 
being "lifted up from the earth," 76 and giving 
"his life a ransom for many." 77 Teaching and 
living might cure the ignorance of men, and 
lead them to miss some of the natural conse- 

72 Luke viii. 14. 73 John i. 4. 74 Matt. ii. 20. 

75 John x. 17, comp. Matt. xx. 28. "John iii. 14; xii. 34. 

77 Matt. xx. 28. 



Himself. 105 

quences of sin. The hard problem was to lib- 
erate them from the obligation to punishment. 78 
His people shall not perish. 79 If he is lifted 
up, they shall have eternal life. 80 

He is no more ignorant of the reason for his 
death than he is of the fact. He studies the 
fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, and finds it de- 
scribing what he came to do. 81 He talks of his 
death with Moses and Elijah on the mount, 82 
perhaps instructing them, or else assuring his 
own human heart by converse with men who 
knew his glory ; and then, in plain speech, tells 
his disciples that the "Good Shepherd layeth 
down his life for the sheep." 83 "The Son of 
man gives his life a ransom for many." 84 Of 
himself he lays down his life, and the Father 
loves him for so doing. 85 There is no doubt, 
then about his understanding the reason of 
what he does. The labor was to make them 
understand, for they were "foolish men, and 
slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets 
had spoken." 86 Again and again he returns 
to the subject. 87 His disciples, knowing not 

78 Luke xxiv. 46, 47. 79 John x. 28. 80 John ill. 14, 15. 

81 Luke xviii. 32; xxiv. 46. 82 Luke ix. 31. 83 John x. 11. 

84 Matt. xx. 28. 85 John x. 17. 86 Luke xxiv. 25. 

87 Matt. xvi. 21; xx. 17, 18; xxvi. 12, 31. 



106 The Creed of Christ. 

the reason, cannot believe the fact. 88 Perhaps 
to their minds the clearest statement comes near 
the close of the conflict. 89 With the sacrifice of 
the paschal lamb immediately before him, the 
body of the lamb and the blood of the lamb 
vividly present to the minds of the devout men 
who followed him, he takes a loaf of bread and 
says, "This is my •body" (not the lamb's). And 
the cup he takes and says, "This is my blood 
(not the lamb's) which is poured out for you." 
At the paschal supper, to speak words like these 
could mean only one thing. Jesus believed he 
was about to' die for men in a sense similar to 
that in which the Passover lamb was slain for 
them. As the paschal lamb was given to re- 
deem the first-born of Israel, so the Son of man 
came "to give his life a ransom for many." 84 
And when the suffering was all over, before 
ascending into the ineffable glory, he tarries 
with them for a little while, tenderly urging 
upon them the thought that it was right for 
him so to die. 90 After passing through the 
darkness, because he knew the necessity and the 
glory to come, he approves the way and the 

88 Matt. xvi. 22. 89 Luke xx. 14-20. 90 Luke xxiv. 44. 



Himself. 107 

result. ''Behooved it not the Christ to suffer 
these things and to enter into his glory?" 91 
The final gospel is that sins are remitted 
through a ransom, and that Jesus Christ is that 
ransom. 92 

To undertake such a work, even on a small 
scale, would mark a man either great or insane ; 
but how sublime is Jesus! He does this for 
the world. 93 He stands, in his view, a man 
and God, 94 between men and God. 95 He is ab- 
solutely essential to every human soul. 96 For 
knowledge, guidance, life — for all spiritual 
good, men need him, 95 and failing to find him 
are lost. 97 His power is unlimited, 98 and his 
station is the station of God. 99 "Me, men must 
honor and serve, and trust as they do the eter- 
nal God." 10 ° "Me, men may worship, 101 and 
call by the names that belong to God alone. 102 

So loving and so high is he, that my soul 
may fly toward him through all the ages that 
my soul shall live ; and if my soul, or any other 



81 Luke xxiv. 26. 82 Luke xxiv. 46, 47. 

83 John iif. 16; compare 1 John ii. 2. 84 John x. 33-36. 

85 Johnxiv. 6. 86 Johnvi. 53. 87 John iii. 18. 

88 Matt. ix. 27. 88 John xvii. 5. 10 ° John v. 23. 

101 John ix. 38. 102 John xx. 28. 



108 The Creed of Christ. 

human soul, is thirsty, or hungry, or weary, 
Jesus taught and Jesus believed tha't in himself 
alone were drink and food and rest to be found. 
"The bread of God is that which cometh down 
out of heaven, and giveth life unto the 
world." 103 "I am the bread of life; he that 
cometh to me shall not hunger, and he that be- 
lieveth on me shall never thirst." 104 "Come 
unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, 
and I will give you rest." 105 May I think the 
thoughts of Jesus after him, and his creed be- 
come my creed, so that he may be to me all 
that he is, all that he believed himself to be. 

103 John vi. 33. 104 John vi. 35. 105 Matt. xi. 28. 



VII. 
Redeemed Men. 

"He himself knew what was in man." — John ii. 25. 

' I A HE boundary line between knowledge and 
■*■ faith is sometimes hard to fix. What a 
man knows makes up a part of his system of 
belief, and what he believes slowly grows into 
a form of knowledge for him. We are clearly 
told that Jesus, in his far-reaching view, knew 
what was in man; knows even the false and 
the openly opposed j 1 doubly then does he know 
the man that is his own, for the new and great 
things in this man are the work of his own 
hands in a peculiar sense. 2 Like a skillful 
workman, he has passed through the tangled 
wood of this world, and, with a keen eye, has 
selected here and there a tree out of which he 
will form the beams and pillars for the temple 
he is building. 3 

^ohn ii. 24. 2 John x. 28; xvii. 6-8. 8 John xv. 16. 



no The Creed of Christ. 

He makes no mistakes. 4 He is setting up a 
kingdom, 5 and that kingdom is not a place with 
geographical boundaries, but simply a kingdom 
of men — men who erstwhile were subjects of 
an alien power, 6 but now, by a divine process 
of naturalization, have been transferred into a 
new kingdom, and fitted, by throwing off their 
old allegiance and by renewal of their very na- 
ture, to take upon them the obligations of this 
new King. "Whosoever he be of you that 
renounceth not all that he hath, he cannot be 
my disciple." 7 "Except ye turn, and become 
as little children, ye shall in nowise enter into 
the kingdom of heaven." 8 "Except one be 
born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of 
God." 9 

We wish to get his view of these redeemed 
ones. He has made them to differ from com- 
mon men, 10 and loves them in a peculiar way, 11 
for, divide the world as you please, his portion 
is his people. This may have no value in the 
eyes of the world, which thinks that the be- 



* John vi. 64. 5 Matt. iv. 17. 5 John xv. 19. 

7 Luke xiv. 33. 8 Matt, xviii. 3. 9 John iii. 3. 

10 John xv. 14-16. " John xiv. 21-23. 



Redeemed Men. hi 

liever only pretends to a life in any way dif- 
ferent from the life of other men, and the re- 
deemed man himself may sometimes lightly 
esteem the work that has been done for him, 
and be ignorant of its value, like a man who, 
for a life-time, labors to secure a scant living 
from a stingy soil, while ignorant that every 
day he walks above a mine of exhaustless 
riches. But what says Jesus ? He knows men 
— knows what they have been and are — knows, 
too, the grand conception that fills his mind, 12 
and after which he is forming every child of 
God; knows how weak the new life is, 13 - and 
knows, too, how hard the old life dies, 14 and 
yet believes in man — sees more in him than 
has been seen before — and because he knows, 
or in spite of knowing, believes in him — be- 
lieves in his future and trusts him. "They 
shall never perish." 15 "I have called you 
friends." 16 

I. These men have experienced a great 
change. Jesus tells us what this change is, and 
who brings it about, but just how the change 

12 Luke xx. 29, 30. 13 Matt. xii. 20; Mark ix. 42. 

14 Luke ix. 49, 54. 15 John x. 28. 16 John xv. 15. 



112 The Creed of Christ. 

is produced he does not explain. He does 
insist, 17 however, that it is not merely intel- 
lectual enlightenment. No teacher, though he 
be come from God, can by simple teaching pro- 
duce this great result. Nor is it a mere going 
back to the comparative innocence of child- 
hood, however great a miracle that would be. 
A man might literally be born again, and yet 
not know what this great thing is of which he 
speaks ; still, it is a new birth, for he must use 
a figure of speech from common life in order 
to bring down the new thought to minds that 
have never risen so high as this. A new birth, 
and, stranger still, a "passing out of death into 
life," 18 he calls it. What can this possibly 
mean concerning the living spirits of men? 
"Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and 
drink his blood, ye have not life in your- 
selves." 19 "The Son also giveth life to whom 
he will." 20 

To each person of the trinity he ascribes the 
power to work this marvel in the life of men. 21 

17 For following, examine John fii. 1-15. " John v. 24. 

"John vi. 53. w John v. 21. 

81 To the Father, John vi. 44; to the Son, John v. 21; 

x. 28; to the Spirit, John iii. 5. 



Redeemed Men. 113 

Men must believe 22 and come, 23 but God gives 
eternal life or quickens the dead, or is author 
of the new birth ; 21 still he tells us not how, nor 
does he tell us this unless it be under the like- 
ness of another wonderful thing. 24 A stricken 
Israelite, in obedience to God's command, 
looked upon a brazen serpent, and lo! the 
doomed and dying man went free and well. 
What cured him? Unless we say God, we 
know not what to say. But how ? Ah ! there 
the Saviour speaks to our pride and says: "I 
am talking about things that I know, and of 
which other teachers in Israel are ignorant. 
You will understand when your faith has 
grown a little stronger." 25 

It is easier for us to know the greatness of 
the work than it is to know its nature. Results 
are clearer than causes. There is a point at 
which life and death may stand so close that 
we can scarcely distinguish a dividing line ; 
still, they are separated by the boundless gulf 
that divides the living from the dead. So these 
new-born people may stand so close to the bor- 

■ John iii. 18. M John v. 40. 24 John Mi. 14. 2B John iii. 9-12. 



ii4 The Creed of Christ. 

cler-line that to human eyes they appear very 
like the men on the other side ; yet to the eyes 
of Jesus there is a gulf so wide that no man 
can cross it, save by divine power. 26 His view 
will become our view when we consider his 
teaching as to the old status of these men, and 
as to the new status of these men. 

i. The old status. This was made up of a 
relation and a condition. A man, before Jesus 
finds him and begins his wondrous work, is a 
child of the devil, with a strong family likeness 
to the father, 27 and he is so opposed to the 
wooings of the Saviour's love, so far away and 
dead, that he cannot come to the light unless 
the Father draw him. 26 His face to the devil, 
his back to God. In love with sin, hating the 
good. 28 His condition may be truly described 
as blind, 29 unable even to see the grace and love 
of God; as bound, drawn away and held by 
ties which it is impossible for him to break ; as 
bruised, beaten by God's judgments and his 
own conscience, as well as by the hard service 
of the devil; as broken-hearted, forlorn and 



26 John vi. 44. 2T Matt. xfii. 38; John viii. 44. 

28 John iii. 20; xv. 18. 29 See Luke iv. 18. 



Redeemed Men. 115 

hopeless, with noble aspirations gone, and de- 
spair hastening on — altogether in a condition 
of absolute poverty, like the poverty of the 
prodigal Who has spent all, and who in the time 
of stress has no friends. 30 

2. The new status. Jesus comes to a man, 
lean and miserable and estranged from God, 
and by this mighty work of which I am speak- 
ing, graciously gives life where death reigned, 31 
sight and light, instead of blindness and dark- 
ness; 32 liberates the captive, heals the broken- 
hearted, nor stops until he has taken these chil- 
dren of the devil, and made them sons and 
daughters of the Lord God Almighty. 33 This 
does not mean such a sonship only as may be 
claimed by all men, by reason of creation and 
the general love of God for men 34 — it makes 
a man a brother of Jesus Christ and a child of 
his Father. Who are my brethren? "Whoso- 
ever shall do the will of my Father, he is my 
brother. " 35 And mark how, after the resur- 
rection, he sends a message to his brethren, not 
to the world. "Go unto my brethren, and say 

30 Luke xv. 14-16. S1 John xvii. 2. 32 John viii. 12. 

33 Luke vi. 35; compare 2 Cor. vi. 18. 34 John viii. 41. 

35 Matt. xii. 48-50. 



n6 The Creed of Christ. 

to them, I ascend unto my Father and your 
Father, and unto my God and your God." 36 
That loving message went out to a chosen few, 
nor could it with reason or truth have gone 
to men at large who despised and hated him. 
"If God were your Father, ye would love 
me" 37 — and no man who is indifferent to 
Christ or inimical to Christ has a right to say 
"My Father" in this high sense. Where the 
filial spirit is not found, that form of words 
would be a mockery. This transformation of 
a doomed enemy into a son who is heir to all 
the promises was in the mind of Jesus, a real 
and a mighty change. 

II. But not only was this change great. He 
believed the gift of God, man's new possession, 
to be of priceless value. There is in it some- 
thing not desirable only, but essential to man — 
so essential that though he gain the whole 
world, if he miss this he is a bankrupt still. 38 
Put the world on one side, and this simple gift 
on the other, and the wise trader will take 
this. 39 Worldly possessions are bought too 

88 John xx. 17. 37 John viif. 42. » Mark viii. 36. 

"Matt. xiii. 45, 46. 



Redeemed Men. 117 

dear, if the price be the man who seeks them, 
or even if they cost his life, but here is a 
treasure for which one may well lay down this 
present life, for in so doing he gains himself, 
and for himself a more enduring life. 40 But 
the gift is not simply of great intrinsic value. 
It must also be estimated by its guarantees. 
He gives two : 

1. The redeemed man is insured against 
loss. No man shall die with Jesus in his debt. 
Turn away, give up, surrender worldly good, 
and you will receive more. 41 Go forth and 
serve by following and by doing, and not even 
a cup of cold water will I forget. 42 I will not 
suffer any man to lose by me. 

2. He also gives a guarantee for the future. 
Trust on, and labor on, and your work will 
stand; and better still, ye too shall stand. 
Against my building, my body, the gates of 
hell shall not prevail, 43 and my men shall stand 
up against wind and flood, like houses built on 
rocks, as solid as the rocks themselves. 44 

III. Though this possession was of price- 

40 Mark viii. 35. 41 Mark x. 28-30. 42 Matt. x. 42. 

43 Matt. xvi. 18. "Matt. vii. 24, 25. 



n8 The Creed of Christ. 

less value, Jesus believed that it was of increas- 
ing richness. The new-born, the redeemed 
man, is at the worst richer than any natural 
man can ever be, but is by no means so rich 
as he may, nay, as he will be. Only place these 
two principles together, and see if there is any 
process known to us by which this man's wealth 
may be estimated, (a) The good seed in good 
ground brings forth an hundredfold, 45 and (b) 
"Unto every one that hath shall be given." 46 
The soil, richer each day by divine grace, re- 
ceiving new increments of seed at the hand of 
the divine Husbandman, then receiving more 
and more according as more and more is pos- 
sessed ! 

The prayer of Jesus for his people holds in 
its lap the same blessed principle: "Sanctify 
them in the truth ;" 47 set them apart and make 
them holy by means of thy divine truth; and 
the truth comes as the light breaks, gradually. 
Thus we can bear it. 48 The more of truth is 
brought to bear, and the more what is brought 
to bear produces its desired results, 49 the larger 

45 Matt. xiii. 83. 46 Matt. xxv. 29. 47 John xvii. 17. 

48 John xvi. 12, 13. "John xv. 3. 



Redeemed Men. 119 

our minds and hearts become, and the holier 
we grow. To know God is for the regenerate 
heart to love him. To know him more is to 
love him more; and love will grow for me as 
long as new views of him shall break upon my 
soul. It is idle to talk of Sinless Perfection, 
the result, being complete before truth, the 
means, has been exhausted. To say that we 
are intrinsically and perfectly holy is to say 
that we know all of God's truth, and that that 
truth has finished its beneficent workings in us. 
Our Saviour's view was that his people were 
moved upon by an inexhaustible power, 50 and 
were receivers of boundless gifts, 51 which grew 
richer and larger as men were able to receive 
them. 52 

IV. These things the Saviour held, and one 
other besides them. He believed that these 
men became objects of personal concern and 
regard on the part of God himself. "If any 
man serve me, him will my Father honor," 53 
and "my Father will love him." 54 He will 
keep them so safe that no one shall be able to 



80 John xvii. 2. 51 John fv. 10; Luke xxii. 29, 30. 

62 John xvi. 12. B3 John xii. 26. M John xiv. 23. 



120 The Creed of Christ. 

pluck them out of his hand. 55 When they 
cry, he will rise to avenge their wrongs ; 56 
and woe betide the man that meets God angry 
because one of his little ones has been en- 
snared. 57 He considers their needs in his 
providential control 58 and in his judgments on 
the world, and for their sakes he shortens the 
awful days of the final misery. "And except 
those days had been shortened, no flesh would 
have been saved ; but for the elect's sake those 
days shall be shortened." 59 

We are not much in the eyes of the world, 
and in our own eyes we are weak and helpless 
men; but it is grand to have God bestowing 
rich gifts upon us, and fashioning these lives 
until we become something to him 60 — men 
for whom he has spent more than for all the 
world besides, 61 to whom he has given more 
than to the angels in heaven, 62 and for whom 
the future holds richer gifts than it is possible 
to conceive 63 — these men he loves. 

Jesus knew all this ; Jesus believed all this ; 
Jesus believed in these men, their present worth 

55 John x. 29. 56 Luke xviii. 7. 5T Matt, xviii. 6. 

58 Matt. vi. 30-32. 59 Matt. xxiv. 22. "> Matt, xviii. 12-14. 
#1 Mark xii. 1. 62 John Hi. 16. 63 John xvii. 24. 



Redeemed Men. 121 

and their future wealth ; he believed that when 
his work for them was done, they would be 
worthy and capable of bearing these great 
honors — the men would meet the event ; 64 
and he sets them in the world as the stars of 
heaven are set — some for beauty, to gladden 
the hearts of all with eyes to see ; some as stars 
of hope, telling of a coming day, and by their 
brightness turning men to think of what a man 
will be when the full day comes in all its splen- 
dor; and some as guides, steady as the very 
pole star is steady, to call men back that are 
lost, and leading, with God's own light, the 
wanderers through the wilderness of this 
world. "Ye are the light of the world. Let 
your light shine before men, that they may see 
your good works, and glorify your Father who 
is in heaven." 65 It is desirable that this faith 
of Jesus should become our faith. God's child 
should believe in and love God's children. 66 To 
step from death to life is a mighty stride ; 67 
to have Christ is to be rich; 68 to be heir of 
God is ineffable glory ; 69 these men are the 
world's nobility. 70 

"Matt. x. 23; compare Rev. iii. 4. w Matt. v. 14, 16. 

M John xv. 12. 6T John v. 24. 88 Matt. xiii. 14. 

89 Matt. xxv. 34. 79 Matt. xi. 11. 



VIII. 

The Kingdom. 

"Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God 
and saying : Tne time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God 
is at hand ; repent ye, and believe in the gospel." — Mark 
i. 14, 15. 

/^OD reigns. But there is a narrow and a 
^^ broad scope to this idea. Just as he is the 
Father of all men, but in a special sense the 
Father of those that believe, so he is King over 
an essential and universal kingdom ; but is also 
King in a new and revealed sense of a certain 
restricted kingdom, which in the word of 
Jesus is variously described as the ''kingdom 
of heaven" x and the "kingdom of God." 2 
This name, in one point of view, contains 
Christ's ideal for his people ; but when we have 
purpose and power to accomplish them, ideals 
constitute also a part of our creed. 

This special reign of God in the Messiah had 

x Matt. v. 3. Matt. xii. 28. 



The Kingdom. 123 

been spoken of by the prophets. 3 And in the 
time of Christ not a few of the people, with a 
jeal heart-sickness at the stress of the times, 
and the deferred hope, were waiting for it. 4 
Only Jesus fully understood the sort that this 
kingdom was to be. The King makes the king- 
dom, and the unearthly King brings in a king- 
dom, not of this world, but spiritual. 5 A king- 
dom that may be in a single heart, 6 and yet 
which contains all the hearts of all the lovers 
cf God. 7 

Not Moses himself, bearing a message of 
deliverance to oppressed Israel, could have re- 
joiced more than did Jesus when, to his own 
benighted generation, he lifted up his voice and 
preached the blessed gospel of the glorious 
kingdom. 8 The King himself preaches the 
gospel of the kingdom; and in this term he 
also comprehends the sum of all the preaching 
of all the preachers sent by him to the end of 
time. "And as ye go, preach, saying, The 
kingdom of heaven is at hand." 9 Some mis- 

3 Isa. ix. 6, 7; Dan. ii. 44. * Luke ii. 25, 38. 

8 John xviii. 36. 6 Mark x. 15. 7 Matt. xfii. 38. 

8 Matt. iv. 23. 9 Comp. Matt. x. 7; Luke x. 9; Matt. 

xxiv. 14; Acts i. 3; viii. 12. 



124 The Creed of Christ. 

understood his meaning; 10 some wrested his 
meaning, in ofder to destroy him; 11 but he is 
not shaken. His first proclamation is this, 12 
and his last confession is this : 13 "I am a King, 
and I have a kingdom." In his preaching, he 
declares the kingdom to be near — so near that 
it furnishes a reason for immediate action on 
the part of all who hear. Prepare ; repent, for 
the kingdom comes. 12 It comes as does the 
gentle spring, without noise or observation. 14 
It is within you; 15 it will come with manifest 
power in the lives of men now living; 16 the 
signs of its power are the overthrow of evil, 
and the building up of good. 17 It is this pecu- 
liar kingdom — not the essential sovereignty 
of God — for which his people are instructed 
to pray, when they say, "Thy kingdom 
come." 18 We call that faith strong which en- 
ables one to give substance to things unseen, 
To the heart of Jesus other kingdoms seemed 
unsubstantial, while this unseen kingdom was 
real and eternal. 19 From his various proclama- 

19 Luke xiv. 15. u Luke xxiii. 12. u Matt. iv. 17. 

13 John xviii. 37. " Luke xvii. 20. 15 Luke xvfi. 21. 

18 Mark ix. 11. 1T Matt. xii. 25-30. 18 Matt. vi. 10. 

"Matt. xxiv. 1-31. 



The Kingdom. 125 

tions there comes to us of the cruder sight a 
revelation of the things which his heart saw, 
and we can learn out of his lips the following 
points concerning that kingdom of which he 
is King, and of which redeemed men are the 
subjects. 

I. The gate of entrance into the kingdom 
of God coincides with the new birth. "Except 
one be born anew, he cannot see the kingdom 
of God." 20 We have seen how Jesus believed 
that men untouched by him belong to a hostile 
kingdom. 21 The accretions to his kingdom 
come from the spoils of that ; 22 still are they 
unfit for him until his great power not only 
transfers them, but transforms them, as by a 
new creation. 23 They, on their part, by re- 
pentance throw off the old allegiance, 24 and 
by faith take on the new. Men are not to rest 
like stones, to be bodily lifted. Their duty is 
to strive to enter into the kingdom of Christ. 25 
And thoug J h they have great obstacles like the 
love of riches, 26 and though they be dead 



30 John iii. 3. 21 See Chap. IV. M Matt. xii. 29. 

" John v. 21. M Mark i. 15. 25 Luke xiii. 24-28. 

29 Mark x. 24. 



126 The Creed of Christ. 

toward the claims of God, as the eyes of Bar- 
timseus were dead to the light, yet are they 
bound like him to put forth every power of 
mind and of heart that is yet alive — reason, 
memory, imagination, conscience — to bring 
the dead part of themselves to Jesus. 27 The 
amiable, honest, ingenuous man may be near 
the kingdom, while still without its bounds. 28 
To make the transfer, actually to cross over 
the boundary line, means the cutting away of 
every tie which binds one to that other life. 
"Whosoever he be of you that renounceth not 
all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple." 29 
Not only does he take the oath of allegiance 
to this, he foreswears his allegiance to that 
kingdom. 

II. The members of this kingdom, as it lay 
in the mind of Jesus, possess certain unusual 
characteristics, and in possessing them are 
genuine. They do not merely pretend to ad- 
mire or to obey the commands. They are real 
men, who do what they say, 30 and when they 
build, build upon the eternal rock. 31 They are 



Mark x. 46-52. 28 Mark xfi. 34. 29 Luke xiv. 33. 

30 Matt. vii. 21; xxiii. 3. 31 Matt. vii. 24. 



The Kingdom. 127 

kind to others' faults, 32 severe upon their 
own. 33 They do not go about making a dis- 
play of what they do or do not possess. 34 What 
is seen in them is the shining out of a real 
principle, which simply cannot be hid. 35 This 
genuineness is a pervasive quality that attaches 
to everything that this new man does. In 
every department of his being, in every mark 
that is mentioned below, this must be under- 
stood — he is not a hypocrite. 36 

1. Unworldliness. In general terms, this 
would mean that his foreswearing of allegiance 
to the old kingdom was genuinely done. Jesus 
could see a man in Which this had gone so far 
that he loves not and serves not the self to 
which ;that old world ministers 37 — a man to 
whom the new kingdom and the new King are 
first 38 — a man who does not even seek the 
temporal accessories that go with the well- 
being of the new service, 39 — in a word, a man 
who has made a complete transfer of his affec- 
tions, and lives from a new set of motives. He 
now does not serve mammon. 40 

83 Luke vi. 36, 37. 33 Matt. v. 29, 30. 84 Matt. vi. 1-18. 

85 Matt. v. 14. 3G Matt. vi. 2; Luke xii. 1, 2. 

87 Luke xii. 21, 33. » Matt. vi. 33. 89 John vi. 26, 27. 

40 Matt. vi. 24. 



128 The Creed of Christ. 

2. Consecration. This means that though 
he be beyond the jurisdiction of the old king- 
dom, 41 he is no expatriated wanderer. 42 He 
has a new King, to whom all his love and all 
his life belong. 43 Though in this kingdom 
Jesus is King, he gave his all to it, 44 and he 
expects his subjects to do as much. 45 The 
spirit of the King permeates the spirit of the 
people. 46 Loyalty to Christ transcends all 
other passions. So devoted is this man, that 
for the love of his new Lord he can go forth 
bearing a cross ready at hand for his own 
crucifixion. "If any man would come after 
me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, 
and follow me." 47 

Because of this devotion, certain strange 
things come to pass. For inner joy he is not 
dependent upon the abundance of earthly 
things which he possesses. 48 His heart is ever 
bigger than his hoard. In conduct he ever 
gives an overplus. What he might be expected 
to do because he is a man, he does; but ever 

41 John viif. 32. " John xii. 26. « Matt. xvii. 37. 

44 John x. 17. "John xv. 12, 13. 

"Matt. xx. 26-28; xviii. 31. 4T Matt, xvi. 24. 

48 Luke xii. 15; Matt. v. 11, 12. 



The Kingdom. 129 

does he add the little more which shows how 
love of Jesus has made him to differ from the 
world. 49 In most unlikely places he finds his 
blessings, 50 and seeks his honors where other 
men see only shame. 51 When these two things, 
unworldliness and consecration, meet in the 
same man, you have a subject of Jesus' king- 
dom, a man who turns from worldly things 
without regret, 52 and follows Christ without 
distraction. "No man, having put his hand to 
the plow, and looking back, is fit for the king- 
dom of God." 53 If this be the idea of Jesus, 
does he find faith on the earth ? 

III. The relation between the subject and 
the King. 

It is difficult to grasp Christ's view of this 
relation. The king is absolute in power and 
authority, but at the same time he exhibits an 
amazingly democratic spirit. His people draw 
near to him, and he gives them added power 
to understand his will. 54 They can ask him 
anything they wish, 55 and he for love will hear 
them. The King is a Father 56 and a Shep- 

48 Luke vi. 29-36. B0 Matt. v. 3-12. B1 Mark x. 42-44. 

62 Luke xvii. 31, 32. M Luke ix. 62. 

M John vii. 17; xvi. 12, 13. "John xv. 7, 16. 

66 Luke xii. 32. 



130 The Creed of Christ. 

herd, 57 and spares not himself to protect his 
people. 57 His laws are not to tax and to op- 
press them, but are devised for their advan- 
tage ; 58 nor must they be so interpreted as to 
crush the people's life. 59 He governs them, not 
as a rebellious province would be governed, but 
with equal laws with those which prevail in 
the heavenly kingdom. 60 Those that keep 
these laws are close to the heart of the Sov- 
ereign, and he will not hold himself aloof, but 
will love them so much that he will come down 
into their homes and abide. The King comes 
down, the man is lifted up. Whence was there 
ever such a thought as this thought of Jesus — 
men entering into terms of mutual confidence 
with God. "If a man love me he will keep my 
word: and my Father will love him, and we 
will come unto him, and make our abode with 
him." 61 

IV. The relation of the members of this 
kingdom to each other. There being one su- 
preme Sovereign, 62 and every subject of the 
kingdom being equally exalted by equal rights 

67 John x. 11. 58 Mark ii. 27. 59 Matt. xil. 7. 

60 Matt. vi. 10. $1 John xiv. 23. 62 Matt. xxii. 10. 



The Kingdom. 131 

of approach to him, there is no such thing as 
one asserting preeminence above another. 63 
All are brethren. 62 The right hand is usually 
thought most of, but this is simply because it 
has been used most, and so in this kingdom a 
man may come to the front by urgent, and oft- 
times bitter, service ; 63 but this gives him no 
rights of lordship. It is honor freely given, 
not something that he may claim. Jesus ex- 
pects his people to be great after the style that 
he was great, 64 and a bitter cup separates the 
ordinary human spirit from the highest place. 65 
The true spirit is the child-spirit, 66 opposing 
none that honor the King, 67 and not being dis- 
turbed though others may think but little of 
you. 68 Jesus propounds a short, practical code, 
by which they may know what to do. "What- 
soever ye would that men should do unto you, 
even so do ye also unto them." 69 This rule 
is intended for a measure, not for a motive of 
conduct. When it becomes a motive, all grace 
is lost. In Jesus' view, these men are all kings 
and all servants. His own example shows that 

• 2 Matt. xxii. 10. M Mark x. 42-45. M Mark x. 45. 

65 Matt. xx. 22. 66 Luke ix. 46-48. 67 Mark ix. 38, 39. 

88 Luke ix. 53-55. " Matt. vii. 12. 



132 The Creed of Christ. 

there was in his mind a state in which every 
servant is brother to his lord, 70 and every lord 
is servant to his servants. 71 He graciously 
puts great things in the reach of all, for he 
measures work, not by the amount done, but by 
the heart of the worker ; 72 and the Hall of 
Fame in his kingdom he nils with heroes who 
served so humbly and so simply that they are 
themselves surprised at their own exaltation. 73 
V. One other thing remains to be said. Con- 
fusion has grown up in the minds of many 
from the fact that Jesus seems to use the ex- 
pression, "kingdom of God," in a double sense. 
Often he speaks of it as a kingdom to be imme- 
diately set up. It is "at hand" ; 74 it has "come 
nigh" ; 75 it is "within you." 76 Again he uses 
it as if it would only be realized with his 
glorious return on the clouds of heaven. 77 
This confusion is at once removed by the con- 
sideration that the kingdom is not two, but one. 
The kingdom of God, which has already been 
set up, will be gloriously rounded out later; 

70 John xv. 15. 71 John xiii. 14, 15. 73 Mark xii. 43. 
73 Matt. xxv. 37-40; xxvi. 13. 74 Matt. fv. 17. 

76 Luke x. 11. 78 Luke xvii. 21. 77 Matt. xvi. 27, 28. 



The Kingdom. 133 

but a man that is in the kingdom, is in the 
kingdom. We are serving now in a distant 
province. We shall be members of the home 
government ere long. The Lamb is my light. 
He also is the light of the eternal city. 78 Jesus 
is my King, and please God, I shall have none 
other. He is my King for ever and ever. Let 
us not treat him as only heir-apparent to the 
throne, but let us have a coronation day, when 
we shall take him as King of our hearts and 
King of our lives. Jesus labored, believing 
that he would inherit a glorious kingdom. 79 
Let him have it. 

78 Rev. xxi. 23. "John xviii. 37. 



IX. 

The Kingdom in the World. 

"As thou didst send me into the world, even so sent I 
them into the world." — John xvii. 18 ; xx. 21. 

~|\ /T Y kingdom is not of this world, 1 saith the 
King, yet here we are, both in the king- 
dom and in the world. 2 The lord of this world 
also has his servants here. 3 Some of the 
world's folk have taken color from basking in 
the light of the kingdom, 4 and some of the 
children of the kingdom have not fully cast off 
their old livery. 5 Worse than this, some of 
those who claim to belong to the kingdom are 
deceived, 6 and deceive others; and some who 
truly believe have hid the fact within their own 
bosoms. 7 We are confused, but the faith of 
Jesus is clear. 8 

A comprehensive confession of his faith on 
this point may be found in the seventeenth 

1 John xviii.36. 2 John xvii. 11. 3 John xv. 19. 

4 Matt, xxiii. 27, 28. 5 Mark viif. 24. 6 Matt. vii. 22, 23. 

7 John xii. 42; xix. 38. 8 John vi. 64. 



The Kingdom in the World. 135 

chapter of John. His prayer is what he be- 
lieved, and this is that for which he prayed: 
a people chosen, changed, prepared, sent out 
among enemies, kept for a definite purpose. 
He. knew the intimacies of human life; he had 
felt the temperature of the world; he believed 
in the Father's promise to give to him and to 
his people a kingdom ; and he had definite ideas 
as to 'how that kingdom should be won. 

I. The intimacies of life. 

The line that separates his people from the 
people of the world, though perfectly distinct 
to him, is obscure to the eyes of other men, and 
very crooked. In and out it runs, dividing 
father from child, 9 friend from friend, 10 
bi other from brother, 11 citizen from citizen, 12 
business partner from business partner. 13 So 
intertwined are the two peoples that it would 
work great injury to his own violently to sepa- 
rate them now. 14 The great institutions of 
life, the family 15 and the state, 16 derive their 
authority and permanence, not from any other 
source than God; and men, by entering his 

8 Matt. x. 35. 10 Luke xvii. 34. la Matt. x. 21. 

12 Matt. x. 11. 13 Luke xvii. 35. 14 Matt. xiii. 29. 

15 Matt. xix. 4-6. 16 John xix. 11. 



136 The Creed of Christ. 

kingdom, cease not to be men, and escape no 
duty that is reasonable and becoming to other 
men. 17 His service begets no mean spirit. His 
men pay their dues to all, 18 and they are bound 
by greater ties than other men, for since Jesus 
has spoken, they do these things religiously. 

II. The world, however, is inclement. 
Sometimes 'the kingdom makes a stir, and men 
endeavor with all their might to rush into it; 19 
but usually the world is indifferent or hostile. 
The worldly man really does not understand 
the nature and blessings of Christ's king- 
dom ; 20 his heart constitutes an unresponsive 
soil, like the surface of a rock. 21 To such men 
the invitations given and the provisions made 
have no attractions. 22 They see no treasure 
hid within this field, 23 and though they be 
indefinitely seeking something that will make 
them rich, they have not come as yet to see 
it here. 24 It matters notwho the messenger is, 
or whether he speak loud or soft, it is all one 
to them. 25 



1T Matt. xxfi. 21. 1S Matt. xvii. 24-27. 19 Matt. xi. 12. 
20 Matt. xiii. 13-17. 21 Matt. xiii. 5. 22 Matt. xxii. 2-6. 
"Matt. xiii. 44. 2i Matt. xiii. 45. * Matt. xi. 16-19. 



The Kingdom in the World. 137 

This indifference often passes into active 
hostility. Jesus was not like the world, and 
the world hated him. 26 Jesus rebuked the 
world, and the world resented it. 27 His very 
presence was ofttimes not desired; it was 
taken as an interference. 28 When Jesus has 
taken certain men of the world and made them 
like himself, the world, being the same old 
world, hates in his people the same things 
which it hated in him. 29 If his people, for 
righteousness or for mercy's sake, interfere 
with business, men wish to drive them out. 
Even their presence in certain places Js sharply 
resented. If they are loyal to Jesus, they, like 
him, are not wanting for a day in the Gada- 
rene country. 30 In 1887 a white-skinned sea 
captain, who plied between Yokohama and 
Shanghai, would not have a missionary to sit 
at his table, and said that Japan was a heathen 
country, and he desired it to remain so. Times 
actually come when it is proper to say that the 
relation of the subjects of the two kingdoms is 
like the relation between the wolf and the 



26 John xv. 24. 27 John vii. 7. M Mark i. 24. 

29 John xv. 18-20. 30 Matt. vfii. 34. 



138 The Creed of Christ. 

lamb. 31 At such times the world persecutes 
and kills and destroys ; 32 at other times it uses 
blandishments to seduce the weak and cause 
them to stumble. 33 Jesus, instead of delivering 
his people at once from dangers like these (a 
thing he does in a few cases), sends them back 
and leaves them in this troubled, hostile coun- 
try. 34 

III. His purposes are two : 

1. That these men of his may grow. The 
world of men is to them like the earth is to 
seed, a place to grow in ; 35 and only when they 
have ripened to his mind, and the harvest-time 
has come, will he send forth the reapers. 36 A 
man when Jesus finds him is in many ways like 
the prince of this world, whom he has been 
serving. 37 His new destiny culminates in like- 
ness to the new Prince who has redeemed 
him. 38 The transforming life is planted in his 
heart by divine power, 39 fed by divine truth 40 
and nurtured by all the resources of divine 



31 Luke x. 3. 32 John x. 8-10. 

33 Matt. xxfi. 16; xviii. 7-9. 3i Luke viii. 38, 39. 

85 Matt. xiii. 23; Mark iv. 26-28. 36 Matt. xiii. 30. 

v John viii. 38. ^ John xvif. 16, 24. 39 John xvii. 2. 

40 John xvii. 17. 



The Kingdom in the World. 139 

grace. 41 Even the storms and winters of the 
hostile world tend in some strange way to its 
advantage. 42 The season of growth is not of 
equal length in all. 43 And, as some believers 
enter at once into glory, 44 we can conceive of 
this work being done for all, by other means 
and in sunnier fields than this dark world 
affords. God has ways of developing a man, 
though the man die as soon as he is born into 
the kingdom. But there is another work 
which, as far as we know, must be done here 
upon the earth and through the ministry of 
human lives, and so — 

2. His great purpose in sending them forth 
was, that others might come to. know and to 
believe in him. 45 His kingdom grows by ac- 
cretions from the world, and he trains some of 
his followers to cultivate hearts instead of 
fields, 46 and to fish for men instead of fishes. 47 
It bore upon the heart of Jesus that his own 
labors did not bring more victories, 48 but he 



41 Luke xiii. 8; John xv. 2. 42 Matt. v. 11, 12. 

43 Compare the brothers James and John. 

44 Luke xxiii. 43. 46 John xx. 21-23; xv. 27. 

49 John iv. 35-38. 47 Matt. iv. 19. 

48 Matt, xxiii. 37; Luke xvif. 17. 



140 The Creed of Christ. 

believed — believed in such a way as to cheer 
him — that his chosen men would do greater 
things than he had done, 49 and would carry 
the good news of the kingdom to the utmost 
bound of earth ; 50 that the growth of his king- 
dom would be marvellous, 51 and would ulti- 
mately affect the whole mass of men. 52 Jesus 
died for the world, and he intends to win the 
world. 53 If his people are worthy and united, 
men will come to believe that God sent him, 
and will believe on him. 54 Aye, on him shall 
even the Gentiles come to place their trust. 55 
The King was to overthrow Satan's kingdom 
by drawing all men unto himself. 53 If he fails 
in this, the rest of his work fails. When, 
therefore, he goes away, and leaves the work 
undone, he sends his followers forth to do the 
"greater works" of which he spake. 56 Jesus 
did not desire simply to make a proclamation 
and stop ; he wished to win men. "This man 
receiveth sinners and eateth with them." 57 He 
goes after that which is lost "until he find 
it" 58 

48 John xiv. 12. M Matt, xxviii. 19; Acts i. 8. 

51 Matt. xiii. 31, 32. 52 Matt. xiii. 33. B3 John xii. 32. 
M John xvif. 21. B5 Comp. Matt. xii. 21; Luke iv. 24-27. 
w John xiv. 12. "Luke xv. 2. M Luke xv. 4. 



The Kingdom in the World. 141 

To this end his people in the world should 
be — 

(a) Free men. He whose heart is set upon 
what the world holds, and whose expectations 
are towards such honors as the world can give, 
is not free for the service of this new King. 59 
In order that men may serve Jesus well, he 
teaches that they must seek the honor which 
comes from God only, and be content with 
that. 60 No ill treatment on the part of the 
world can ever surprise the man who has atten- 
tively considered the warnings of Jesus; he 
has only to "remember" what his Lord has 
said. 61 No ill treatment that the world can 
bring can make this man afraid. 62 Faith in 
God and fear do not dwell in the same breast. 63 
One of the strange things that Jesus can do is 
to fill a heart with permanent peace, and with 
the sweetest kind of joy, though that heart be 
pressed on every side and Jesus be its only 
friend. "These things have I spoken unto you, 
that in me ye may have peace. In the world 
ye have tribulation ; but be of good cheer ; I 
have overcome the world." 64 

68 Matt. vi. 24. 80 John v. 44. 61 John xvi. 1-4. 

"Matt. x. 28. 63 Matt. x. 29-33. M John xvi. 33. 



142 The Creed of Christ. 

But it is not only the fear of the world which 
keeps a man in bondage, and incapacitates him 
for this other service; the rewards which the 
world gives also enslave him. 65 How can a 
man in the pay of the world serve truly the 
kingdom of Christ? The lust of gain and the 
love of riches are fatal. "Children, how hard 
it is for them that trust in riches to enter into 
the kingdom of God !" 66 "The care of the 
world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the 
word." 67 "So, therefore, whosoever he be of 
you that renounced! not all that he hath, he 
cannot be my disciple." 68 No rule that Jesus 
lays down seems more unrelenting than this — 
the worshipper of gold cannot be his disciple. 
Here is something from which his people must 
be free. "Ye cannot serve God and mam- 
mon." 69 

This does not mean that his servants must 
live in poverty. Many of his most faithful fol- 
lowers were householders, 70 and some of them 
were rich enough to minister unto him of their 
substance. 71 Even a costly burial could be af- 

65 Matt. vi. 19-24. 88 Mark x. 24. 67 Matt. xiii. 22. 

68 Luke xiv. 33. 89 Matt. vi. 24. 70 John xix. 27. 

71 Luke viii. 3. 



The Kingdom in the World. 143 

forded him by a rich man who truly believed. 72 
It does mean, however, that their hearts shall 
not hold these things too dear. Possession is 
no sin, but slavery to possession is. Jesus must 
be both the Lord of his people and the Lord of 
what they possess. This is shown by the cir- 
cumstance that the only one on whom he laid 
the command, "Sell all that thou hast and 
distribute unto the poor," proved his need of 
just that command by his inability to do it. 73 
If his heart had been free from bondage to his 
estates, the command would have been no more 
necessary for him than it was for the loving 
family at Bethany. 74 The spirit of Christ's 
man must be free at every cost. The world 
must not command him ; Christ is his Master. 
If to purchase this freedom it is necessary for 
any given man to sell all, why then he must 
sell, or else he cannot be his disciple. 75 The 
Roman army officer had wonderful faith and 
kept his office. 76 Peter, 77 Levi 78 and John 79 
followed their Lord, but did not sell their 
houses. There is no virtue in wealth, and there 

"Matt, xxvif. 55-60. 73 Luke xviii. 18-23. 

74 John xii. 1, 2. 75 Luke xiv. 26-33. 76 Matt. viii. 5-13. 
77 Matt. viii. 14. 78 Luke v. 29. 7 » John xix. 27. 



144 The Creed of Christ. 

is no virtue in poverty, only the poor man, 
having no master that takes up all his love, is 
freer to take on the service of Christ. 80 There 
is no sin in poverty, and there is no sin in 
wealth; only the rich man feels no need, and 
already has a master that takes up all his 
heart. 81 Christ's servant, whether he be poor 
or rich, must be free. If the rich be free, they 
are a blessing to the poor, 82 and the free poor 
man can often help in noblest ways the rich 
man who is a slave, and restless and alone. 83 
(b) These people, being free from the world, 
should be loyal to their new King. Under this 
head may be gathered all those conceptions of 
Jesus as to the method by which his kingdom 
shall meet and overcome the world. A true 
loyalty to Christ would lead his servants to 
confine the sphere of his kingdom as he con- 
fined it. His being the Messiah did not thereby 
constitute him a civil judge. 84 Some things 
he came to do, others he did not come to do. 
"The Son of man came not to be ministered 
unto, but to minister." 85 "God sent not the 

80 Mark x. 24. 81 Luke xii. 19. 82 Luke xii. 33. 

83 Luke xix. 1-10. w Luke xii. 14. 85 Matt. xx. 28. 



The Kingdom in the World. 145 

Son into the world to judge the world; but 
that the world should 'be saved through 
him." 86 He was not an overturner of civil 
governments. Even Pilate was to him a law- 
ful governor, and he stood before his bar. 87 
No one could stop him in what he came to 
do, 88 but he did not, as a man, embrace within 
himself all offices. 84 Similarly, his people are 
not "of the world," 89 and are not over the 
world, 90 but are "in the world." 91 In the last 
analysis they have no Master but Christ. 92 But 
this does not entitle them to be civil judges, 84 or 
constitute them lords of all the affairs of men. 
A true loyalty to Christ would lead his ser- 
vants to extend the sphere of his kingdom as 
he extended it. This means to despise no man, 
and to despair of no man. 93 The darkest place 
is the place most in need of light. These ser- 
vants are light-bearers. "Men loved the dark- 
ness." 94 "And he that walketh in the dark- 
ness knoweth not whither he goeth." 95 "Ye 

ARE THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD." 96 JeSUS loves 

*« John iif. 17. N John xix. 10, 11. 88 Luke xiii. 31-33. 

M Luke xii. 14. " John xv. 19. w Matt, xxiii. 8-12. 

91 John xvii. 11. M Matt, xxiii. 10. 92 Matt, xxiii. 10. 

93 Luke vi. 35. M John iii. 19. 96 John xfi. 35. 
86 Matt. v. 14. 



146 The Creed of Christ. 

the world, and died for the world, and into the 
world they must go, that the world may know 
and believe. 97 Nothing but lack of faith, either 
in the love or in the power of Jesus, will ever 
make them turn back. Jesus never found even 
in Judea a sinner too vile for him to save ; and 
there is no one from whom his church has a 
right to turn away. 98 Moreover, the field of 
his activity is the whole world, 99 and no man 
has a right to restrict it by high or low, by near 
or far away. "Ye shall be my witnesses both 
in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, 
and unto the uttermost part of the earth." 10 ° 
A true loyalty to Christ would shut out for- 
ever all worldly or unworthy means of win- 
ning men. What has the church done when by 
the world she has won the world? Has any 
change been wrought? Are the men not 
worldly still? Jesus bowed not down before 
Satan, though, in a sense, it would have given 
him the world. 101 He did not want the world 
as it was. If he must change to a worldling 
in order to win it, the world would be the 



87 John xvii. 21, 23. 9S Luke xv. 1, 2. " Matt, xxviii. 19. 
100 Acts i. 8. 101 Matt. iv. 9, 10. 



The Kingdom in the World. 147 

world still. If it come not lawfully he prefers 
that it come not at all. 102 He makes no com- 
promises nor alliances with Satan. He shows 
a square front and an honest breast to all the 
opposition that he meets. 103 A kingdom that is 
not different from the world is not his king- 
dom. 104 A kingdom won by worldly means is 
still a worldly kingdom. 105 Not such a king- 
dom is his, and not by such means is it ad- 
vanced. He commissions his servants to go 
forth armed with a beautiful harmlessness to 
interfere with the ignorance and sin of this 
stricken world. 106 They go to preach, 107 to 
teach, 108 to bear witness, 109 to live, 110 to 
shine, 111 and thus to lift the clouds of darkness 
and of misery that oppress the nations. If they 
lose their distinctive character, they accomplish 
nothing. If they are faithful, they shall gradu- 
ally salt the whole mass of men with the de- 
licious flavor of the Christ-life. 112 

(c) Being free to do this work, these men 
must not only be loyal to Christ, they must also 

102 John vi. 36-40. 103 Matt. xii. 25-30. 1M John xviii. 36. 

105 John xv. 19. m Matt. x. 16. 10T Matt. x. 7. 

108 Matt, xxviif. 20. 109 John xv. 27. no John xv. 5. 

111 Matt. v. 16. 112 Matt. v. 13. 



148 The Creed of Christ. 

catch the Christ-spirit. The men who walked 
with Jesus from day to day found this very 
hard to do, and were constantly breaking out 
in tempers unharmonious with his. 113 It may 
be harder for us than it was for them to find 
this spirit and to hold it against the world. 
The kingdom ought to be permeated with the 
spirit of the King, 114 and his people are to ex- 
pect no more from the world than he re- 
ceived. 115 To begin with, Jesus did not con- 
ceive his kingdom to be an incubus upon man- 
kind, to be supported by unwilling gifts or 
taxes. His friends supported him; 116 he fed 
the strangers who flocked about him. 117 He 
maintained his independence, his self-respect 
and public respect. 118 He shunned no obliga- 
tion for the purpose of saving a little money. 119 
Even a king could not with attentions buy his 
silence, 12 ° but the poor were aided by his 
gifts. 121 

In sending out other men to work in his 
name, he authorizes them to receive the willing 

118 Mark ix. 33-37; Luke ix. 54, 55. u4 John xiii. 15, 16. 
116 John xv. 20. n6 Luke viii. 3. U7 Matt. xiv. 16. 

118 John viii. 46. lld Matt. xvii. 24-27. 

"°Comp. Luke ix. 9; xiif. 31, 32. m John xiii. 29. 



The Kingdom in the World. 149 

gifts of those among whom they labor; 122 but 
it is only on the principle of equivalent service 
having been rendered. "The laborer is worthy 
of his hire." 122 No idler can claim a crust 
under that rule. It means work, work, work. 
If they have not rendered service, they are 
unworthy of hire, and ought not to expect it. 
Later, he instructs these same men, in order 
to insure their independence, to take with them 
whatever of worldly goods they may pos- 
sess. 123 The kingdom is a true blessing to the 
nation in which it is found, and to whatever 
nation it may be transferred. 124 It does not 
absorb, it gives. 125 No species of mean cring- 
ing nor of fawning dependence is compatible 
with the dignity of the King nor of his ser- 
vants. 126 

The men of the kingdom, standing thus 
upon their feet, need in their work two other 
points of likeness to Jesus. They must have a 
love that forgets all injuries and is equal to 
all the burdens that shall come. 127 No resent- 
ment must burn against those who have ill-used 

122 Luke x. 7. 123 Luke xxii. 36. 124 Matt, xxh 43. 

125 Matt. x. 8. m Matt. x. 24-33. m Luke vi. 27-36. 



150 The Creed of Christ. 

the cause they love. 128 If a man believe not, 
still must they labor on. 129 Let the world hate 
and persecute and kill, they, for the sake of 
Jesus, must love and forgive and serve. 130 The 
kingdom is to the world as Jesus was, the 
light, 131 and the duties of the men of the king- 
dom are like the duties of Jesus, to live, and 
to suffer, and, if need be, to die to win the 
world. 182 

This leads to the second point of likeness. 
To do this work, men must, like Jesus, feel a 
great compassion for the lost. 133 "Lift up 
your eyes and look on the fields." 134 The 
kingdom does not occupy an humble station, 
from which she looks up and asks favors. She 
sees the whole world as a shepherdless mass, 
and her heart is stirred like the heart of her 
Lord. 133 How beautiful is the compassion of 
Jesus, and how like Jesus is the unselfish com- 
passion of a redeemed man ! The tender heart 
of the summer cloud is moved in pity for the 
parched earth, and she opens her bosom and 



128 Luke ix. 54, 55. 129 John xii. 46, 47. 

13C Matt. v. 44, 45. 131 Matt. v. 14. 132 John xx. 21. 

333 Matt. ix. 36-38. 1M John iv. 35. 



The Kingdom in the World. 151 

pours out her very substance upon the thirsty 
ground ; and thus the kingdom of Jesus blesses 
with the riches of her very soul the barren 
wastes of human life. If all the members of 
this glorious kingdom could thus live and love 
and labor in the world — could all be united, 135 
in answer to the prayer of Jesus; could all be 
filled with the Holy Spirit, 136 whose work is 
the same as theirs 137 — we might with good 
reason hope to see that other prayer of Jesus 
answered, too: "That the world may believe 
that thou didst send me." 135 There is so much 
of the mass of men that has not been leavened 
yet. 138 There are so many birds that have not 
come to know where this great tree is growing 
and stretching forth its goodly branches. 139 
O Lord God! remember still the prayer of 
Jesus. 

135 John xvii. 21. 138 Luke xxiv. 49. 137 John xv. 26, 27. 
138 Matt. xiii. 33. 139 Matt. xifi. 31, 32. 



X. 

The Holy Spirit. 

"And the Holy Spirit descended in a bodily form as a 
dove upon him." — Luke iii. 22. 

T)RAYER. Oh! thou whose gracious task 
it is to lead us into all truth, for Jesus' 
sake, lead us into the truth concerning thyself. 
The story of man's creation suggests to us 
a plurality of counsellors in the stupendous 
work ; 1 and the story of man's redemption — 
a work of greater cost by far — opens with a 
like revelation. 2 By the brink of Jordan three 
persons appear : Jesus, not fully learned in his 
Father's will, and unseasoned to the tempta- 
tions and burdens that make the climate of this 
world; the Holy Spirit, descending in bodily 
form out of heaven, to light on him, and be- 
come his guide and helper; and God the 
Father, speaking with a voice that men could 
hear, and owning this man Jesus for a Son 

1 Gen. i. 26. 'Matt. iii. 16, 17. 



The Holy Spirit. 153 

and his work as well pleasing in his sight. We 
have seen how Jesus believed in his Father, 3 
and how he also believed in his own dignity 
and success as the divine Redeemer 4 — but 
who is this third blessed One that here ap- 
pears? And what is his work? And how can 
he come upon men? And what is the power 
which his coming brings ? 

We are not permitted to doubt the existence 
of such a Being, for Jesus, after seeing him 
come down out of the rent heavens 5 — fit 
symbol of the veil that divides this world from 
that — having known the urging of that Spirit 
upon his own heart as he led him forth into 
the wilderness, 6 and having in time of trial felt 
the support of the world's Comforter, who was 
first a Comforter to him, 7 and having returned 
into Galilee filled with a consciousness of new 
power, 4 enters the synagogue and makes the 
distinct claim that this Spirit of God is still 
upon him. 8 God has anointed him for a spe- 
cific and mighty work; and whether the "be- 
cause" in Luke iv. 18 ("The Spirit of the Lord 



a Chap. II. 4 Chap. VI. 5 Matt. iii. 16. 8 Mark i. 12. 
7 Luke iv. 1. 8 Luke iv. 18, 21. 



154 The Creed of Christ. 

is upon me, because he hath anointed me to 
preach good tidings to the poor") mean that 
the work was of such a kind that the call to it 
proved the possession of the Divine Spirit, or 
whether it mean that the conscious possession 
of the Spirit proved the call to the work, we 
are not at pains to decide. It is insisted, how- 
ever, that Jesus saw and felt and claimed the 
existence of this Holy Spirit of God. As we 
proceed to ask certain questions about the Holy 
Spirit, and endeavor to answer them, we im- 
plore his guidance, and devoutly pray that we 
may at least be saved from offending him. 

I. The first question, then, is, Who is this 
Spirit whom our Saviour distinguishes from 
God the Father and from himself? And the 
answer is, He is a divine Person. In this 
answer there are really two points, his divinity 
and his personality. The proof of one lies 
neighbor to the proof of the other, for the 
works assigned to him forbid that he be less 
than divine, 9 and the way in which he is de- 
scribed as performing those works excludes 
every idea except that of personal agency. 10 

9 John iif. 5. 10 Luke xii. 10, 12. 



The Holy Spirit. 155 

The baptismal formula itself embraces both 
ideas, for in that formula he stands equal to 
and distinct from the Father and the Son. 11 
Nor must it be forgotten that in describing 
him the evangelist uses masculine pronouns, 
when mere grammatical rules would require 
the pronoun to be neuter. 12 He saves his 
theology at the expense of his grammar. 

This point is so generally admitted by the 
church to-day that nothing beyond this simple 
reminder of the usual line of proof will be 
needed to win the consent of men to the state- 
ment that the Holy Spirit is a divine person. 
What seems to be needed now is to reckon this 
position a fundamental one. He is a person 
as truly as God the Father, or as Jesus Christ 
is a person, and this fact must control the 
answer to any other questions that may be 
asked about his work or indwelling. Every- 
thing that is said about the Holy Spirit must 
be said with his personality in view, and the 
form of every statement must be consistent 
with this eminent characteristic. 

II. In the view of Jesus, what work belongs 

11 Matt, xxviii. 19. u John xvi. 13, 14. 



156 The Creed of Christ. 

to the Holy Spirit? In answering this ques- 
tion, it is allowable to combine in one view two 
distinct things, the work that he did for Jesus, 
and the work which he will do for other men — 
for Jesus was a man, and the Spirit that 
wrought in him is the same that works in us, 
and the efficacy of his working cannot be better 
shown than in the full perfection of his energy 
as found in the life of Jesus Christ. There is 
a marked difference between the man who came 
to John to be baptized in the Jordan 13 and the 
man who, in the power of the Spirit, returned 
into Galilee; 14 but even this difference does not 
measure the gulf that separates between two 
certain points in a common man's life — the 
one when he is a child of the devil, and doing 
the lusts of his father, 15 and the other when 
he is a son of the Lord God Almighty, 16 with 
the likeness of God stamped upon him. 

The Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin, 17 
and leads to Jesus; 18 he is the author of the 
new birth, 19 the enlightener of the mind, 20 the 



13 Matt. Hi. 13, 15. 14 Luke iv. 14. 15 John viii. 44. 

13 John i. 12, 13; iif. 5. "John xvi. 8. 18 John xv. 26. 

19 John iii. 5. 20 John xvi. 12, 13. 



The Holy Spirit. 157 

guide, 21 counsellor, 22 teacher 23 and sancti- 
fier 24 of believers ; he anoints with authority 
and power for special work ; 25 he speaks 
through human lips ; 21 he is the agent by 
whom the testimony of men is made efficient. 26 
In a word, he does what Jesus would do if in 
human form he still stood among his friends, 
and does it more effectively. Jesus had helped 
them, pleading with them for God, 27 and with 
God for them. 28 He had answered for them 
the criticisms of their enemies. 29 He had held 
them to himself with words of warning 30 and 
words of hope. 31 He had been a present help, 
a paraclete — and the Holy Spirit was to be 
"another," and a more efficient one, by reason 
of his freedom from certain limitations that 
belonged to Jesus as a man. He is to abide 
with them, and lead them till need of leading 
is felt no more. "I will pray the Father, and 
he shall send you another Comforter, that he 
may be with you forever." 32 And so, "It is 
expedient for you that I go away." 33 It will 

21 Matt. x. 19, 20. M John xiv. 6, 7. 23 John xiv. 26. 

"Comp. John xvii. 17; xvi. 13. 2B Acts i. 8. 

26 John xv. 26, 27. " John xv. 28 John xvii. 

29 Mark vif. 1-15. 30 Matt. v. 20. 81 Luke xviii. 30. 

32 John xiv. 16. 8S John xvi. 7. 



158 The Creed of Christ. 

be seen that to perform these tasks always and 
everywhere, nothing short of a divine person, 
with divine intelligence and divine power, will 
suffice. While if he be as Jesus taught, a true 
person thus gloriously exalted and endowed, 
he is abundantly competent to undertake these 
offices — offices which belong not to a blind 
energy or influence — and to fill them with 
success. 

III. What is meant by "receiving the Holy 
Spirit," 34 or, "the Holy Spirit coming upon 
you" ? 35 Certainly, everything that is taught 
is consistent with the personality of the Holy 
Spirit, nor can he be given nor received, 
except as a divine person, for this he is. It is 
true that he may manifest his presence in dif- 
ferent ways, and in varying degrees of clear- 
ness; but all the while it is he that possesses 
the life and divides the gifts on different days, 
or to different individuals, as he please. Thus 
he was in the hearts of the believing apostles 
from the time of their new birth, 36 but Jesus, 
on leaving them, breathed upon them and said, 
"Receive ye the Holy Spirit," 37 doubtless as 

34 John xx. 22. 35 Actsi. 8. 3S John iii. 5. 37 Johnxx. 22. 



The Holy Spirit. 159 

a spirit of understanding, "opening their 
minds." 38 But, even after this, there rested 
on them the command to tarry at Jerusalem 
until the Holy Spirit should come upon them 
as a spirit of power for the work assigned, 39 
namely, witnessing to Jesus and his resurrec- 
tion. "Ye shall receive power, when the Holy 
Spirit is come upon you; and ye shall be my 
witnesses." 40 

It is not, then, a new portion of him that 
comes, hut rather the same gracious Person, 
coming with a new gift. We are taught to 
pray, not for his influence, but for him, 41 and 
all those expressions which would seem to 
divide or portion out the Spirit of God are un- 
scriptural. No one partitions the Saviour, and 
no intelligent Christian prays for a part of his 
sacrifice or blood to be applied to him. Nor 
are we to divide or measure the Holy Spirit. 
He, the adorable, intelligent, entire Person that 
he is, takes up his throne in the hearts of men, 
and on one bestows a gift of speech, 42 on an- 
other a gift of understanding, 43 and on another 



"Luke xxiv. 45. "Luke xxiv. 49. *° Acts, i. 8. 

41 Luke xi. 13. 42 Matt, x. 21. "John xiv. 26. 



160 The Creed of Christ. 

a gift of joy 44 or of power ; 40 and when he 
opens his hand to bestow these gifts, or comes 
afresh to bear some new gift, 39 he is ever the 
one, undivided Spirit of God. The words in 
John iii. 34 ('Tor he whom God hath sent 
speaketh the words of God, for he giveth not 
the Spirit by measure") are not regarded as 
contrary to this view, for the contrast in that 
connection is not between Christ and lesser 
messengers, but between the words of the mes- 
senger and the words of God. He whom God 
hath sent speaketh words that are really God's 
words, for God giveth not the Spirit by 
measure, so that one may say this message is 
half human and half divine. He that has, and 
speaks by the Spirit, speaks by a person who 
is divine and undivided — speaks indeed the 
words of God, and God is true. Just how this 
divine Person comes into a human life and 
influences that life may be as hard for us to 
explain as it would be to show how one human 
spirit stands near to and influences another; 
but we are not endeavoring explanations — the 
effort is to set forth facts, and these facts are 

44 John xiv. 16, 17; xv. 11. *°Acts i. 8. 

"Luke xxiv. 49. 



The Holy Spirit. 161 

abundantly established in the teachings of 
Jesus and in human experience. 

IV. What is meant by the "power" which 
one receives by the coming of the Holy Spirit ? 
Here, again, the foundation fact that the Spirit 
is a person must give character to any view 
that is held, and, therefore, it cannot be true 
that this power is a sort of energy or heavenly 
electricity that is subject to the will and direc- 
tion of its human possessor. So far from this 
being true, it is the gracious prerogative of this 
divine Person to oppose the will of the man 
whom he possesses, and by his great power to 
direct that human will into new channels. He 
is opposed to man's ignorance, and teaches 
him. 45 He is opposed to man's love of sin, 46 
and weans him away from it. He is opposed 
to man's rebellion, and subdues him. 47 He is 
the master, not man. He leads, and if that 
fails, directs. 48 Never is he described as a 
something which I may use ; he is a Somebody 
that can use me. 48 Never are we to conceive 
that he puts infinite power under the control of 

45 Comp. Luke xxiv. 25 ; John xvi. 12, 13. 4 « John xvi. 8. 
47 Comp. Luke xii. 11, 12; xxl. 14, 15. 
"Acts viii. 29; xvi. 6, 7. 



162 The Creed of Christ. 

human intelligence. He abdicates his throne 
of authority in favor of none, Jior does he lend 
without reserve his resistless power to puny 
men. 

What does Jesus mean, then, by a man being 
"clothed with power"? The prophecy, or 
promise, is best understood by the method 
of the fulfilment. What Jesus gave is what he 
meant to give. A study of The Acts will show 
that the Holy Spirit did not use men as de- 
positaries of a mysterious energy to be ex- 
pended on other men. He simply took posses- 
sion of men separately, and wrought upon them 
each for himself, showing his presence by giv- 
ing new powers, or new energy to existing 
powers, in the life of the men upon whom he 
came. In The Acts v. 32 the work of the 
apostles and the work of the Spirit are not 
identical, but distinct: "And we are witnesses 
of these things; and so is the Holy Spirit, 
whom God hath given to them that obey him." 
If the exigencies required that a man speak 
with tongues, the divine Spirit enabled him to 
do that, 49 but the hearing ear, and the under- 

* 9 Acts ii. 4. . 



The Holy Spirit. 163 

standing mind, were separate gifts. 50 If a 
man's duty was to be a witness to Jesus, the 
possession of "the power" simply meant that 
the blessed Spirit gave him skill to present a 
testimony clear and full. 51 The believing heart 
was a separate and direct gift. If the man's 
business was to work a miracle, the Spirit of 
God by his personal indwelling decided the 
occasion, directed the method of the doing, and 
put forth, apart from the man's strength, his 
own creative power to make good a plan and 
a word of his own choosing. Thus Peter, 
miraculously taught and led by the Spirit, 
preaches in the house of Cornelius, and speaks 
with the Spirit's power. But the statement is, 
"While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy 
Spirit fell on all them that heard the word;" 52 
and we may select for illustration two accounts 
of the preaching of the Apostle Paul, a man 
full of the Holy Spirit. 53 In one case, a mul- 
titude believed, 54 and in the other the people 
were so enraged that they wished, like beasts, 
to tear him in pieces. 55 Paul's testimony was 

50 Acts xi. 15-18. 51 Acts v. 1-16.; vii. 52 Acts x. 44. 
63 Acts ix. 17. M Acts xiv. 1. 65 Acts xxfi. 23. 



164 The Creed of Christ. 

at both times the testimony of a man clothed 
with power, and full pf the Holy Spirit. The 
difference in results did not depend on him, 
and were certainly not designed by him. The 
very last account that we have of a sermon by 
him shows that a cause beyond his control 
determined the result. With impartial mind 
he pleads with an assembled company, "and 
some believed the things which were spoken, 
and some disbelieved." 56 

The "power" which Jesus promised them, 
and which he gave, was not an edged tool with 
which men might work at will, but was the 
personal energy of God's Spirit put forth upon 
the natural and gracious powers of men, en- 
abling them to do or to suffer his revealed will. 
A divine Person, 57 giver of life 58 and graces 
through the knowledge of Jesus, 59 and coming 
as an abiding helper upon his people, 60 and fill- 
ing them by his presence with all necessary 
power for growth and work, 61 this Jesus con- 
ceived the Holy Spirit to be. This is the One 
whose coming would make up for the depar- 

"Acts xxviii. 24. "John xv. 26. M John iii. 5. 

"John xvi. 13, 14. "'John xiv. 16. 61 Acts i. 8. 



The Holy Spirit. 165 

ture of Jesus; 62 and certain it is that we lose 
nothing by his view, for the Spirit himself is 
greater and more to be desired than any gift 
that he bestows. 

V. Does Jesus give a test by which the 
Spirit's indwelling may be known? Constantly 
he is described as doing things ; and when we 
see his work, we may reasonably infer his pres- 
ence. This may be done with as much cer- 
tainty as one may feel in passing through a 
forest, and upon certain indications declaring 
that the lightning has struck this tree. The 
characteristic work of the Holy Spirit is thus 
defined, "He shall glorify me/' 59 This is 
done by leading to Jesus, 63 convicting concern- 
ing Jesus, 64 helping men to understand Jesus, 59 
bringing Jesus to the remembrance of men, 65 
and, in a word, exalting Jesus in the minds of 
men as the object of supreme desire and affec- 
tion. This is the purpose of his mission, and 
any Spirit that does otherwise is not the one 
of whom Jesus spoke. The wonders and signs 
done in apostolic times were done in testimony 

62 John xvi. 7. B9 John xvi. 13, 14. 

^Comp. John xii. 32; xvi. 13. "John xvi. 9. 

65 John xiv. 26. 



1 66 The Creed of Christ. 

of Jesus, and in accrediting his witnesses. 66 
The apostles did not glorify themselves as won- 
der-workers, 67 nor did they invite men to look 
to them as bringing in a new revelation. They, 
when filled with the Spirit, spoke of God's 
promises which he had fulfilled in sending 
Jesus, 68 of Jesus' work, 69 and of Jesus' 
promises. 70 

Upon the hearts of the men of Christ the 
Spirit moves to fashion them after the likeness 
of their Lord, and to fit them for their work. 
Upon the world the same Spirit moves, lest the 
work of Jesus and the work of believers should 
fall to the ground. "He shall take of mine, 
and shall declare it unto you." 71 "He will 
convict the world in respect of sin." 72 Would 
you, then, look for the manifestation of the 
Spirit's presence? Find a sinner turning his 
weary face to God. Would you look further? 
Find you a Christ-like man, that is working 
for Christ, with a heart that gives Christ all 
the glory. "He shall glorify me," 71 and a 
Spirit-filled man will do the same. 

66 Acts iv. 29, 30. 07 Acts fl. 12, 13. 68 Acts iii. 25, 26. 

69 Acts iii. 13, 18. 70 Acts ii. 33. - 1 John xvi. 14. 

72 John xvi. 8. 



XL 

The Home-Going. 

"I leave the world, and go unto the Father." — John 
xvi. 28. 

' I A HE expectation of a glorious end removes 
A the terrors from almost any journey. 
Jesus had left the Father and come into the 
world. 1 It was no hardship for him to make 
the return journey, for that would end where 
he began — in glory. 2 From the mountain-top 
he descends into the valley of this world ; again 
he leaves the valley and returns to the moun- 
tain-top. The uncertainty which brings on 
most of the fear which his people feel had no 
place in his heart. To us, death is such a 
strange thing, and it comes so often to snatch 
our friends away, and we never see them any 
more. When the shadow of its wing comes 
between us and the light, shall we be afraid? 
How much would I give to know whither I 

1 John viii. 42; xvi. 28. 2 John xvii. 5. 



1 68 The Creed of Christ. 

am going, and the way, and of what sort my 
own self shall be ? 

What we, unaided, cannot see, Jesus saw and 
believed, and out of his faith he teaches the 
world a most pleasing view of this great mys- 
tery. He had a Father, 1 and a Father's house, 3 
and when his definite work in this far-off land 
was done, he simply went back home. He 
knew whither he went: "I go unto him that 
sent me." 4 "Father, I come to thee." 5 Death, 
like a horrid portal, shuts out from our view 
the pleasure gardens of the King that lie be- 
yond, and it is only the things on this side 
that seem of much account to us. Not so with 
Jesus. He speaks with equal certainty of the 
things that lie on both sides of the gate. The 
separation seems so slight that he could say to 
one who drew near to him on this side, that 
passing through together, they would still be 
near each other on the other side. "Jesus, re- 
member me when thou comest in thy king- 
dom." 6 "To-day s'halt thou be with me in 
paradise." 7 

1 John viii. 42; xvi. 28. 3 John xiv. 2. * John vfi. 33. 
6 John xvii. 11, 8 Luke xxiii. 42. 7 Luke xxiii. 43. 



The Home-Going. 169 

That Jesus did not fear death is too clear 
to demand extended proof. His life was some- 
thing which for God's glory and man's good 
he could spend as he might spend any other 
precious possession. 8 He was not forced to 
suffer what men conceive to be an irreparable 
loss, 9 and he could have avoided making even 
such an outlay as he saw to be involved in the 
passing away of life. 10 He had power to shake 
loose from the throats of other men the icy 
hand of death; 11 and he who could do this 
need not have died if he had been very much 
afraid. Things which bring terror to the mind 
do not cause gentle names to rise upon the lips. 
Men speak of the "king of terrors." Jesus 
says, "Our friend is fallen asleep." 12 A man 
folds his hands and says, "I die" : Jesus says, 
"I go unto the Father." 13 Men speak of the 
grave, and he of his "Father's house." 14 Cer- 
tain things about it, such as separation from 
friends, 15 and physical suffering, 16 were indeed 
painful; but in his view, it was not the one 



•John x. 15. 8 John x. 18. 10 Matt. xxvi. 53. 

11 John xi. 43, 44. 12 John xi. 11. u John xiv. 28. 

14 John xiv. 2. "John xvi. 6. 18 John xfv. 28. 



170 The Creed of Christ. 

who went away who was in need of comfort 
or of pity; it was they who remained behind, 
and had to wait and to endure. 17 

I. Jesus believed that to him death would 
bring no suspension of his being, or of his 
spiritual powers. Any man, in imagining his 
own death, feels that in the supreme moment 
he will be standing on one side to witness what 
is going on, and Jesus constantly speaks as if 
the passing away of his life would not touch 
for a moment the real part of him. There 
would be no break in consciousness, or in 
memory. 18 He had been with the Father, 19 
and was now here ; again, he leaves this place, 
and goes to the Father. 20 The same person- 
ality extends through the three stages of being. 
If consciousness were broken, he could not be 
sure of this. "I came out from the Father and 
am come into the world; again, I leave the 
world and go unto the Father." 21 Before 
coming into the world, he undertakes a work. 22 
In the world he does it. 23 And while here, he 



"Luke xxiii. 28. 18 Luke xxiii. 43. 19 John xvii. 5. 

20 John xvi. 10. 21 John xvi. 28. 22 John viii. 42; vi. 38. 

23 John viii. 28, 29. 



The Home-Going. 171 

does not hesitate to make promises which he, 
in the same personality, will make good when 
he is gone. 24 He will remember his friends. 
Their welfare will still engage him. 'T go 
away," 24 "but I will see you again." 25 "I will 
send you gifts to help you on;" 26 "I will pre- 
pare a place where I am to receive you." 27 
And then, as if to prove his faith to the hearts 
of all who feared, he came back to his people, 
after death had done to him all that death 
could do, the same thoughtful, loving, broth- 
erly man that he had been before. 28 His say- 
ing to the thief on the cross 29 prevents our 
thinking that there was any interruption of his 
conscious existence even during those three 
awful days of his hiding from the view of his 
living disciples. 30 

II. Though there are certain manifest evil 
effects of death, Jesus believed none of them 
to be permanent. Friends are separated, but 
they are friends still. "Go unto my brethren, 
and say to them, I ascend unto my Father and 



34 John xvi\ 7. 2B John xvi. 22. 26 John xiv. 13, 14. 

27 John xiv. 2, 3. 2S John xxi. 9-14. 29 Luke xxiii. 43. 

30 Luke xxiv. 21. 



172 The Creed of Christ. 

your Father, and my God and your God." 31 
And the separation hath an end. "I come unto 
you." 32 "Thou shalt follow me afterwards." 33 
His own body would be subjected to a painful 
death, but he believed in his death no more 
certainly than he believed in his resurrection. 
"Having laid down my life, I have power to 
take it up again." 34 There was an hour of the 
power of darkness, 35 but the suspicion that that 
hour might stretch out forever seems never 
to have come to him. "The third day" seems 
fixed in his heart. 36 Over and over he speaks 
of it. Let the intervening days be what death 
will make them, the third shall be what God 
will make it — a day of life, and light, and 
glory. 

III. In this great matter Jesus believed con- 
cerning his people the same things which he 
believed concerning himself. All seems so in- 
definite to us that all seems dark. What if we 
could take into the make-up of our own souls 
the faith which Jesus pressed upon the heart 
of Martha — "Believest thou this?" 37 — that 

31 John xx. 17. ^John xiv. 18. M John xiii. 36. 

34 John x. 17, 18. 35 Luke xxii. 53. 38 Matt. xx. 19. 

37 John xi. 26. 



The Home-Going. 173 

the man who by faith is bound to me is alive 
in such a sense that death itself cannot disturb 
the simple fact — he liveth. 38 Open thy soul's 
ear to receive another word, "Because I live, ye 
shall live also." 39 

Omitting the one circumstance of his pre- 
existence with the Father, Jesus represents his 
people as sustaining to that heavenly country 
well-nigh all the relations which he sustained 
to it. Has he a Father there ? So have they ; 40 
and they have a Father's house, 41 and Jesus, 42 
and memory, 43 and love. 44 No break whatever 
is to come, in being or in consciousness ; 45 cer- 
tainly nothing occurs which can disturb their 
identity of person. 46 The same persons that go 
from this world are the persons who arrive in 
that. 47 The forces of death play about their 
feet — they rise not above their heads. "I go 
to the Father; ye shall follow," saith Jesus; 
and the believer is authorized by this faith of 
Jesus to knock at the grim gate of death, say- 
ing, Father, open to thy weary child, for I come 
to thee. 

38 John xi. 25, 26. OT John xiv. 19. "John xx. 17. 

41 John xiv. 2. " John xvii. 24. «■ Matt. xxv. 34-40. 

44 John xif. 26; xiv. 23. 4B Luke xxiii. 43. 

48 Matt. x. 32, 33. 47 Matt. xvii. 3. 



174 The Creed of Christ. 

As for himself, so also for the believer, Jesus 
believed that all the ugly marks which the fin- 
gers of death could make were but temporary 
evils. "I am the resurrection, and the life ; he 
that believeth on me, though he die, yet shall 
he live." 48 It might take his people longer to 
make some stages of the journey than it took 
him ; but for them, too, there is a blessed "third 
day" of light and glory. "Then shall the right- 
eous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of 
their Father." 49 To the believer the same 
things will happen that have already happened 
to Jesus. The strong One who has walked that 
way before knows how to keep them safe. 50 
The child in the arms of the father is as safe 
in the dark as in the day. 

What, then, is death? Only a gate so nar- 
row that no man can pass with any gross en- 
cumbrance. And what is the grave? Not an 
inn, where the believer passes a night as he 
journeys, but only a warehouse in Which we 
store for a time our heavier possessions as we 
in haste pass on. He tells us not of the day 
of our departure, but his words are so tender, 

48 John xi. 25. 49 Matt. xiii. 43. 50 John xvii. 12, 24. 



The Home-Going. 175 

and his thoughts are so clear that this inter- 
vening time of separation should rather be our 
time of mourning. 51 My Lover has gone into 
a distant land, to prepare a home where I may 
go and he with him forever." 52 When all is 
done, he will not even require me to follow 
him — to make the journey thither alone. He 
will come back again, 53 and help me all along 
the way. Father, in company with Jesus, I 
come to thee. 

61 Matt. ix. 15. » John xiv. 2. M John xiv. 3. 



XII. 
The Second Coming. 

"Henceforth ye shall see the Son of man sitting at the 
right hand of Power and coming in the clouds of 
heaven." — Matt. xxvi. 64. 

"And what I say unto you, I say unto all, Watch." — 
Mabk xiii. 37. 

T N this year of our Lord, 1905, the average 
believer has the hope of Christ's second 
coming but little in his thought. A minister 
who has been preaching the gospel for fifteen 
years states that he has never preached upon 
the subject. This indifference is accounted for 
in two ways : the worldly prosperity that has 
come to Christ's kingdom has made men feel 
that there is really no great need for better 
times ; but the chief responsibility for this con- 
dition lies with those who have hotly engaged 
in unfortunate debates which should never have 
arisen about this great matter. Men have fixed 
upon certain dates for the reappearing of 



The Second Coming. 177 

Christ, and talked as if the truth of God was 
pledged to support their solution of the com- 
plex problem. They have even gone so far as 
to say that they would lose all faith in the 
gospel if their schedule were not followed. 
Some assert the day to be near, some that it is 
very far away — and thus the battle has gone 
on, the passing years putting many to shame, 
and ,the general effect upon the church being 
of such a kind that many devout men look with 
incredulity and lightness upon the whole sub- 
ject. Let us, with unprejudiced minds, ap- 
proach the gospels and see what Jesus believed. 
1. The fact. Whatever events or portents 
may intervene between this time and that, 
whatever the order of these events may be, 
Whatever periods of humiliation or of glory 
may come to the church, there is a day in 
which men "shall see the Son of man sitting 
at the right hand of Power, and coming in the 
clouds of heaven." 1 This is a part of our 
Saviour's testimony when under oath. 2 He 
believed it with all his heart, and we are no 
more permitted to doubt it than we are to doubt 

1 Matt. xxvi. 64. 3 Matt. xxvi. 63. 



178 The Creed of Christ. 

the fact that he is the Messiah, and has come 
into the world once to suffer for our sins. The 
prophets, 3 Jesus, 4 the apostles, 5 all classes of 
God's messengers, have a word concerning this 
great hope. Such a glorious manifestation of 
Christ is required for a true rounding out of 
the work that he has undertaken. No one can 
doubt that before all is done, the despised 
corner-stone shall, by God's almighty arm, be ' 
lifted into its proper place, 6 and that men shall 
see it. 7 

This is not only a fact, but it is a distinct 
fact, and must not be confounded with any- 
thing else. Some are accustomed to say that 
death, the believers going to Christ, is practi- 
cally the same for each man as the coming of 
Christ. This is not true. Death is seeming 
defeat : 8 the coming of Christ is manifest vic- 
tory. 9 A disembodied spirit is not the same 
as a redeemed man. 10 The 'body sown in weak- 
ness and corruption is not the same as the im- 
mortal, glorious body which God will give. 11 

3 Dan. vii. 13, 14; Psa. cxviii. 22, 23. * Matt. xxfv. 30. 

5 1 Thess. iv. 16. 6 Matt. xxi. 33-42. 7 Rev. i. 7. 

8 Luke xxii. 53; John xxi. 18, 19. 9 Matt. xiii. 43. 

10 Matt, xxvii. 52. 53. u 1 Cor. xv. 42-44. 



The Second Coming. 179 

At that time the carnival of death shall cease ; 12 
the grave shall disgorge and devour no more. 13 
A part of God's people will not be here, and a 
part there, but "one flock" shall they be, 14 and 
all that offend shall depart from among them. 15 
A great uniting time, 16 and a great separating 
time, 17 will that be. And the King shall "sit 
on the throne of his glory," 18 no more mis- 
understood or despised, but come into his own 
at last, vindicated and glorified. However, or 
for how long his power and his grace may 
show themselves in the meantime, there shall 
come to him on that day his own proper station, 
and to men, the going away into "eternal pun- 
ishment," or into the "life eternal." 19 

While Jesus believed in his return, and 
promised his return, and counted it a time of 
great glory to him and to his church, no one 
can read his confession before Caiaphas with- 
out feeling that in his assertion of a glorious 
vindication there is contained a warning to that 
wicked man. "I adjure thee by the living God, 
that thou tell us whether thou art the Christ, 

12 1 Cor. xv. 54. "John v. 28, 29. 

"John x. 16; xvii. 20-24. 15 Matt. xif. 41. 

16 Matt. xxv. 34. 17 Matt. xxv. 41. 18 Matt. xxv. 31. 

"Matt. xxv. 46. 



180 The Creed of Christ. 

the Son of God. Jesus saith unto him, Thou 
hast said ; nevertheless, I say unto you, Hence- 
forth ye shall see the Son of man sitting at the 
right hand of Power, and coming in the clouds 
of heaven." 20 In view of that coming day, 
greatly to be pitied is the man who now thinks 
too little of Jesus Christ. Jesus is coming 
again with great power and glory. 

II. The time undefined to all but God. The 
angels did not know it ; 21 Jesus as a man did 
not know it. 21 Why, then, will those who are 
men and nothing more insist on finding out? 
The matter is purposely hid from us. 22 Even 
the things which are spoken of as coming to 
pass beforehand are of such indefinite outline 
that they serve us not in fixing a date. Is it 
said that the gospel must first be published 
among all nations ? 23 Who can use this as a 
measure? Has it already been published in 
the sense of the prophecy or not? Does any 
one know? Or the "times of the gentiles," 24 
or the people of Jerusalem changing their 
view, 25 — who can say what these things 

00 Matt. xxvi. 63, 64. 21 Matt. xxiv. 36. "Acts i. 7. 

23 Matt. xxiv. 14. 2i Luke xxi. 24. 

25 Luke xiii. 34, 35; xvii. 22. 



The Second Coming. 181 

mean? The time is as indefinite to us as the 
time of our death is ; not certainly far off, and 
not certainly near. Jesus spoke against two 
errors. 

i . No one was to fix a near date, saying that 
the kingdom of God would "immediately ap- 
pear," 26 and on that account cease to work. 
There is time enough for the accomplishment 
of great things; time enough to do what he 
has given you to do. 27 You do not know when 
he is to come, therefore, so far from pausing, 
work the harder, that he may find you faith- 
ful. 28 Keep the sinews of your endeavor tense. 
"Let your loins be girded about and your lamps 
burning." 28 You know not the time. He 
comes like the lightning's flash. 29 Work on — 
publish forth his love, that the men in darkness 
may see the sunlight 30 before they see the 
lightning. 31 

2. No one is to fix a date in the far distance 
and say, "My Lord delayeth his coming." 32 
Is not this the sin of the church's present atti- 
tude toward this great matter? You do not 

26 Matt. xix. 11. 27 Matt. xix. 12-26. 28 Luke xii. 35-40. 
29 Matt. xxiv. 27. 30 Matt. v. 14, 16. S1 Matt. xxiv. 27. 
32 Luke xfi. 45. 



182 The Creed of Christ. 

know, therefore, "what I say unto you I say 
unto all, Watch!" 33 The fact that the ten 
virgins did not know the time was no reason 
for sleeping. It was a reason for watching. 34 
The thief is coming, you do not know the time, 
therefore go to sleep ? No ; therefore, Watch, 
says Christ. 35 Jesus gives absolutely no war- 
rant for casting the great thought out of our 
minds, under the impression that his coming 
is yet a great way off. No one has a right to 
plan for one evil thing, believing that he will 
have time to finish it before his Lord returns, 36 
and no one has a right to cease any work of 
service because he believes his Lord will not 
give him time to finish. 37 You know not the 
time, therefore labor on; you know not the 
time, therefore watch. 

III. How will he come? In spite of the 
warnings Jesus had given, he believed that his 
actual coming would take men by surprise. As 
an animal walking along an accustomed path 
and suddenly striking a trap-stick, so will his 
coming be, 38 or like men engaged in ordinary 

33 Mark xiii. 37. 34 Matt. xxv. 1-13. 85 Matt. xxiv. 42-44. 
38 Luke xii. 45, 46. 37 Luke xii. 35-28. S8 Luke xxi. 34, 35. 



The Second Coming. 183 

business when the flood came and took them 
all away ; 39 or like the men of Sodom on that 
awful night, when Lot fled, and the fire fell 
upon them. 40 

Men have put the day a long way off, and 
are like cattle grazing upon the earth, with 
their gaze downward. If they would only 
prayerfully watch, they would not at sight of 
him flee away startled and surprised, 41 but 
would 'be able to meet him with a calm courage. 
"Watch ye at every season, making supplica- 
tion, that ye may prevail to escape all these 
things that shall come to pass, and to stand 
before the Son of man." 42 He will come unex- 
pectedly, 43 and he will come suddenly ; 44 the 
warnings are given. The cloud may be a long 
time rising, but the lightning flash is a sudden 
thing. His coming will also be manifest and 
unmistakable. 45 The Son of man on the clouds 
of heaven will be a sight which friends and 
enemies alike shall see 45 — an event alone in 
the experience of the race, the beginning of the 
culmination of all hope, and of all fear. "Be- 

39 Matt. xxiv. 37-40. 40 Luke xvii. 28-30. 

41 Luke xxift. 30; Rev. vi. 16. 42 Luke xxi. 36. 

43 Luke xxi. 34, 35. * 4 Matt. xxiv. 26, 27. 45 Rev. i. 7. 



184 The Creed of Christ. 

fore him shall be gathered all the nations ; and 
he shall separate them one from another, as 
a shepherd separateth the sheep from the 
goats." 46 

IV. What did Jesus believe to be the proper 
attitude of his people toward that great day? 
He speaks of urgent labor, that we be not un- 
prepared, as one who is overtaken with his task 
half done, 47 and of never sleeping watchful- 
ness, that we be not surprised, and fear come 
to us instead of joy. 48 But, besides all this, 
that great day of the Lord's return should be 
looked for with a great longing in the soul. 
It is the day when all our expectations for our 
friends, for ourselves, for Jesus, shall ripen 
into fruit; a day when the grave shall give 
back to us the glorified forms of those we 
love, 49 a day when we, too, shall be changed, 50 
and, above all, a day when the great joy of 
seeing Jesus crowned before the world shall fill 
the heart. 51 What comes to me will give not 
half so much of joy as shall spring from seeing 
what shall come to him. 52 His followers will 

46 Matt. xxv. 32. 4T Luke xii. 35-40. * 8 Matt. xxiv. 45-51. 

49 1 Thess. iv. 14-17. m l Cor. xv. 50, 52. 

51 Matt. xxv. 31. 52 Rev. v. 9-12. 



The Second Coming. 185 

no longer keep back the love that is his due, 
and his enemies will despise him no more. A 
new wife, with the Bridegroom snatched away, 
and she left in poverty and reproach, herself 
despised, and reproaches heaped on him, might 
long for the time when her man shall return 
to vindicate himself before the world, and to 
change her lonely misery into wifely joy, but 
she has no more cause to hope for such a day 
than has the kingdom of Jesus Christ in the 
world. The coming of Jesus brings to that 
kingdom the end of all misery, and the fulness 
of all joy. 53 In suffering, in reproach, in dark- 
ness, in death, she remembers his loving 
promise, "I will see you again," 54 and though 
her strength be almost gone, yet turns she her 
face yonderward, and cries, "Amen ! come, 
Lord Jesus." 55 

53 Matt. xiii. 43. 84 John xvi. 22. w Rev. xxii. 20. 



XIII. 
The Final Glory. 

"And now, Father, glorify thou me with thine own 
self, with the glory which I had with thee before the 
world was." — John xvii. 5. 

"Father, I desire that they also whom thou hast given 
me be with me where I am, that they may behold my 
glory, which thou hast given me." — John xvii. 24. 

"I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and my 
God and your God." — John xx. 17. 

TT 7"E have no source of information on this 
" * topic, except the revelation of God, and 
his revelation is by no means complete. For 
just as we have conceptions which it is impos- 
sible to express in the language of a Hottentot, 
so God has thoughts so great that human lan- 
guage can furnish no suitable vehicle for their 
expression. He has other thoughts which may 
be expressed truly, but inadequately, in the 
words which men have used. He who studies 
a word of this latter class will find that as he 
learns more the word can be made to hold 



The Final Glory. 187 

more, and all of God's meaning, which the 
original scope of the word could not embrace, 
must be packed into it by future use. Joy 
means one thing to the ignorant savage; the 
same word means much more to the educated 
Christian, and more still will it mean to the 
believer who is permitted to enter into the joy 
of his Lord. Any one, then, who endeavors 
to speak of those things which have been told 
us of the final glory is in danger of appearing 
both low and weak in the eyes of those who 
to-morrow shall know more. A true concep- 
tion of what our Saviour believed is all that 
we hope for now. The conception will be 
fuller when we have lived with him longer. 

Certainly Jesus did not believe this life to be 
the end of things for him. He was a believer 
in immortality, 1 and concerning himself — 

I. He believed that he would be restored to 
his original station. Whatever of power and 
authority and glory belonged to him in the 
time before he came forth from the Father 
would come to him again. 2 His manhood 
would not interfere with this culmination ; he, 

1 John xvi. 28. 2 John xvii. 5. 



1 88 The Creed of Christ. 

a man, would come into his glory. What he 
had done in this stage of his being, so far from 
detracting from his honor, would in some defi- 
nite points add glory to the ways in which he 
would manifest himself. 3 How can we know 
what station is worthy of him until we know 
what station is worthy of God ? 4 Once two 
men appeared in glory upon the mountain top, 5 
and Jesus left the form in which it was proper 
to converse with common men, and took upon 
him a form in which it was proper to converse 
with them. This sight overwhelmed those who 
witnessesed it; but God was still above the 
cloud, 6 and Jesus is not to stop until he takes 
on him the very glory of the eternal God. "I 
ascend to my God and your God." 7 He shall 
be seated on the right hand of that infinite 
Being. 8 We do not know how great God's 
power and glory are, but we do know that this 
station of Jesus is the highest station there is. 
The second coming of Jesus is no sudden, tem- 
porary, blazing forth of his glory; it is the 
beginning of a manifestation that shall last. 9 

'John v. 27. 4 John v. 23. 5 Matt. xvii. 1-8. 

8 Matt. xvfi. 5. T John xx. 17. 8 Matt. xxvi. 64. 

'Rev. xi. 15. 



The Final Glory. 189 

II. Jesus believed that his people would 
reach the place to which he has gone. They, 
being raised from the dead, 10 purged of all 
evil, 11 and leaving behind those relations of life 
which have their use only in this world, 12 shall 
also ascend unto God and see the glory which 
he has given to his Son. 13 All believers shall 
be there, without the loss of even one. 14 God's 
original plan shall be accomplished for each. 15 
"They shall see God. 16 They shall "shine forth 
as the sun." 17 

Of the glory of the place we can say but 
little other than that it is worthy of God. The 
material figures used in The Revelation — for 
that book is the revelation of Jesus concerning 
these things — show us the costliest things that 
we know put to very common uses. Pearls are 
put instead of wood for city gates, and gold 
instead of stones for paving the streets. 18 How 
can we know anything of what is worthy for 
the nobler uses in that beautiful home? But 
these things are not intended to hold our at- 
tention. God and the Lamb are the crown and 

10 John xi. 25. " Matt. xiii. 41. M Matt. xxii. 30. 

18 John xvii. 24. 14 John xvii. 11, 12. 15 Matt. xx. 23. 
16 Matt. v. 8. "Matt. xiii. 43. "Rev. xxi. 21. 



190 The Creed of Christ. 

centre of all glory to the believer. 19 That would 
be a strange wife who thought more of a costly 
suit of furniture than she did of her husband; 
and in heaven there is one Being whose absence 
would cause the light to go out of every man- 
sion and every heart. "And if I go and pre- 
pare a place for you, I will come again, and 
will receive you unto myself; that where I 
am, there ye may be also." 20 

As far as we can see, the most comprehen- 
sive term which Jesus uses to describe the sum 
of what he brings to men, or the sum of that 
into which men enter by him, is eternal life. 
This is by no means intended as merely adding 
an element of endlessness to the life which men 
already have ; all men are in this sense im- 
mortal. 21 "Eternal life," as Jesus used the 
term, describes something which is entirely 
absent from men, except as they have Jesus 
Christ. 22 Men enter into it. 23 He is the life, 24 
and having him, men have the life even now. 25 
God gives it, 26 and God gave his Son that men 
might have it. 27 The expression is used inter- 

19 Rev. xxi. 22, 23. 20 John xiv. 3. 21 Matt. xxv. 46. 
22 John vi. 53, 54. 2S Matt. xix. 17. "John xfv. 6. 

25 John vi. 47. 28 John v. 26; xvii. 2. "John iii. 16. 



The Final Glory. 191 

changeably with the words "kingdom of 
God," 28 and the final joy of the redeemed is 
described as "going away into eternal life." 21 
In another passage it sums up what God has 
to give in the world to come to all who love 
him. 29 Add together the chief thing that Jesus 
brings to men in this world, and the crown of 
all gifts in the world to come, and that supreme 
joy or glory, as you please to view it, is eter- 
nal life. 30 

But what is eternal life? We cannot rest, 
like children, in learning the name by rote. 
Can any one tell us what eternal life is ? Jesus 
seems purposely to have given a definition: 
"This is life eternal, that they should know 
thee, the only true God, and him whom thou 
didst send, even Jesus Christ." 31 But even in 
the presence of this definition we are at a stand, 
for certainly this can be no common form of 
knowledge. The object of knowledge is 
clearly stated — God, and Jesus, and his 
coming. 31 And thus, even for the thing 
to be known, men are absolutely dependent 
upon Jesus. 32 But there is also a strange 

28 Mark ix. 43, 47. 21 Matt. xxi. 46. 29 Mark x. 30. 

M John iii. 15, 16. w John xvii. 3. 32 Matt. xi. 27. 



192 The Creed of Christ. 

method of knowing which we must learn. It 
is not after the fashion that one might know 
a common fact, but it is an opening of the mind 
and soul to receive and to digest, not only the 
truth concerning God, but God himself. 33 Out 
of this sort of knowing spiritual life springs, 
and growth, and glory. The water of life, 34 
the bread of life, 35 whether in Jesus, or as pro- 
ceeding out of the throne of God and of the 
Lamb, 36 must be drunk, must be eaten. "Ex- 
cept ye eat ye have not life." 37 What can 
these figures mean, unless he intends to show 
that just as bread and water are related to the 
life and sustenance of the body, so he is related 
to the life and sustenance of the soul? Such 
knowledge of him here is eternal life. 38 Such 
increase of this knowledge as shall come with 
the perfect vision is eternal life above. 39 

The glory of heaven, then, is a personal rela- 
tion of the soul with God and Jesus. All other 
glory is but the bringing of all the accompani- 
ments of life into harmony with that great fact. 
"I go to prepare a place for you." Where is 

"Comp. John vi. 52-58; xvii. 3. "John fv. 14. 

35 John vi. 51. 36 Rev. xxii. 1. » 7 John vi. 53. 

38 John x. 27, 28. S9 John xvii. 24. 



The Final Glory. 193 

it, Lord? u Ye know whither. I go to the 
Father/' Which way is it, and how shall we 
reach it ? "I am the way and the truth and the 
life." 40 He who has Jesus has God, and has 
all the rest. 41 The rewards, and the recom- 
pense that are promised in return for suffering 
and for service here seem not to be material 
things. He who gives a dollar is not promised 
a hundred dollars on the other side, or any 
treasures of a similar kind. "He shall receive 
a hundredfold now in this time; and in the 
world to come eternal life." 42 It is not 
those who give the greatest sums in this world 
that always have the largest inheritance in 
heaven. 43 We simply go out into the service 
of Jesus, and he who serves in such a way as 
to learn more of the Spirit of Jesus, and loves 
in such a way as more nearly to fill his heart 
with the person of Jesus, is rich toward God. 44 
God has a thousand loving ways in which to 
pay a loving heart, for it is love, not pay, that 
the loving heart really seeks. Where Jesus is, 
is heaven, and the knowledge and love of Jesus 
make all the rewards of heaven. 40 

40 John xiv. 1-7. w John xiv. 8-10. * Mark x. 30. 

48 Mark xii. 41-44. "Mark xix. 21: Luke xii. 33. 



194 The Creed of Christ. 

This gives us a fresh view of a very familiar 
saying : "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the 
first and the last." 45 When man from his 
present station begins to think back through 
effect to cause till the first great cause is 
reached, the mind rests not until it finds God, 
the first cause — the first letter in the alphabet 
of existence. And then when Jesus comes to 
the task of showing us the thitherward end 
of human destiny, he lifts this veil and that, 
and, as the last goal of human thought and 
desire, names God, the Omega, the last letter 
of all our spelling. Fly onward, O my soul! 
And gathering strength through all thy onward 
flight, fly onward still. Know God, and know- 
ing him, live. 

Religion is personal union with God, and the 
perfected fruit of all religion is when the pure 
in heart shall see God. 46 "I would see Jesus ;" 
what care I for the pearly gates, and the golden 
streets, except as for things which he has 
made? Jesus holds my heart. From seeing 
and knowing him spring eternal life and eternal 
joy. 

46 Rev. xxii. 13. w Matt, v. 8. 



The Final Glory. 195 

'The bride eyes not her garment, 

But her dear bridegroom's face; 
I will not gaze at glory, 

But on my King of grace ; 
Not at the crown he giveth, 

But on his piercSd hand ; 
The Lamb is all the glory 

Of Emmanuel's land." 



INDEX. 



INDEX. 

Page. 

Alexander, 18 

Alpha and Omega, 194 

Anaconda, 13 

Annihilation, 80 

Babylon, 42 

Bacon, 12 

Baptismal Formula, 155 

Bartimseus, 126 

Being, three stages of, 170 

Believer's death, 172-174 

Believers, growth of, 138 

Bible of Christ, 27 

Book, possible for God of nature to make, 12 

Brazen serpent, 113 

Caesar, Julius, 16-18 

Csssar ( Nero, Paul before ) , 56 

Caiaphas, 179 

Character, 9 

China, 42 

Christ, at tomb of Lazarus, 54; believes in himself, 
93; Christ-Spirit, 148; compassion of, 150; creed 
of, Why study, 14; death of, 101; devotion to the 
Scriptures, 27, 38; divine, 94; essential to men, 
107; final glory of, 186; himself, 92-108; life, 99; 
message, 98; Messiah, 95; method of work, 17; 
not civil judge, 144; opposed to Satan, 64; person 
and character, 17; preacher's repentance, 71; pre- 
existent, 167, 173; ransom, 106; second coming, 



200 The Creed of Christ. 

Page. 
176; source of light and blessing, 15; strong, 79; 
sympathy of, 66; temptation, 64; transfiguration, 

105, 188 ; wonderful, 17 

Christian countries progressive, 19 

Christian Scientist, 70 

Cleopatra, 16 

Comparative study of religions, 42 

Conditional immortality, 81 

Confucius cited, 55 

Consecration, 128 

Cornelius, 163 

Creeds, 9-10 

Creed of Christ important, 14 

Croesus, 18 

David, 33 

Death, 167-175 

Death, believers, 172; effects not permanent, 174; 
Jesus not afraid of, 169; names for, 169; no sus- 
pension of being, 170 

Deeper meaning of Scripture, 28 

Disciples, ignorance of, 29 

Doom, 79; three elements in, 82; fixed, 85; judicial 

sentence, 83 ; loss, 82 ; natural consequences, 83 

Druids, 16 

Egypt, 16 

Elijah, 105 

Elisha, prayer of, 56 

Eternal life, 190; consists in knowledge of God, 191 

Evolution, 45 

Family, from God, 135 

Fatherhood of God, 115-122 

Final Glory, The, 186-195 

Believers with Christ in, 189; like his original 

station, 187 ; not fully revealed, 186 

Formalists, 30 



Index. 201 

Paqii. 

Free men, believers must be, 141 

Gadarene country, 137 

Gaul, 16 

Geologist, 11 

Germany, 19 

Gethsemane, garden of, 52 

Gibbons cited, 15 

Gideon, battle cry, 55 

God, 44-57 

Attributes of, 44-45; concerned about Jesus, 49; 

near, 45-52 ; ruler and inspector of the world, 47 ; 

special manifestation of, 54 ; source of comfort, 53 ; 

of strength, 56 

Gospels assumed to be true, 11 

Goths, 18 

Grave, the, 174 

Greece, 15 

Greek, three words for life, 104 

Growth of believers, 138 

Hall of Fame, 132 

Herod the Great, 16 

Herod Antipas, 53 

Herodias, 72 

Higher criticism, 45 

Himself, 92-108 

Holy Spirit, 152-166 

Characteristic work of, 165; a divine person, 154; 

indwelling, how known, 165; in The Acts, 162; 

not to be divided, 159; power of, 161; receiving of, 

158 ; work of, 155 

Home-going, The, 167-175 

Hottentot, 186 

Human Mind in Religious Study, 11-13 

Ideal life in the Scriptures, 38, 41 

Immortality, 29-187 



202 The Creed of Christ. 

Page. 

Inconsistency of scientists, 12 

India, 42 

Intimacies of life, 135 

Isaiah, 34, 105 

James, 44 

Jerusalem, 40, 102 

John the Apostle, 72, 88, 143 

John the Baptist, 97 

Jonah, 91, 156 

Jordan, 152, 156 

Judas, 72, 88 

Jude, 53 

Judea, 16 

Judgment day, 84 

Judicial sentence against sin, 83 

Kingdom, The, 122-133 

Characteristics of members, 126; defined, 122; 
entrance to, 125; highest place in, 131; members 
genuine, 126; near, 124; one in all stages, 132; 
relation of subject and king, 1 29 ; relation of mem- 
bers to each other, 130 

Kingdom in the World, 134-151 

Members of, forgiving, 149; independent, 149; 
separate from the world, 135; sphere of, 144-146; 

unworldly, 146 

King, democratic, 129 

Knowledge and faith, 109 

Knowledge, sources of, 25 

Laocoon, 13 

Last Supper, 102, 106 

Lazarus, , 54 

Levi, 143 

Life and death, 113 

Life, three words for, 104 

Lot, 183 



Index. 203 

Page. 

Loyalty to Christ, 144 

Mary, 72 

Martha, 172 

Martyrs, 56 

Men in darkness, 72 ; sinners, 71 

Messiah, 95; death of, 101; life, 99; message, 98; 

three duties of, 97 

Messiah conception, the, 39 

Mind in religious study, 11 

Miracles of Old Testament, 32 

Missionary, 77 

Mohammedans, 19 

Moralist denned, 44 

Moral law, 32 

Moses, 17, 33, 39, 40, 105, 123 

Mtesa, 20 

Napoleon cited, 17 

Natural consequence of sin, 83 

Natural scientist, 70 

Nature and Scripture one author, 26 

Nazareth, 39 

New birth, 112 

New revelation, 69 

New status, , 115 

Nicodemus, 73 

No revelation, 69 

Old status, 114 

Old Testament, 27 

Paraclete, 157 

Paschal supper, .... 106 

Paul cited, 25 ; confidence of, 56 ; preaching of, 163 

Penalty, 85 ; eternal, 87 ; fixed, 85 ; terrible, 86 

Peter a householder, 143; preaching of, 163; rebuked, 102 

Physical science, 45 

Pilate, 53, 145 



204 The Creed of Christ. 

Page. 

Possession no sin, 143 

Power of Holy Spirit, 161 

Prayer, Christ enjoins, 54 

Prayers of Jesus, 51 

Preaching, 163 

Pressense cited, 92 

Providence, particular, 48 

Psalms, 39 

Punishment for Sin, 78-91 

Grounds of, 87; guesses concerning, four, 79; 

Jesus speaks much concerning, 90 

Question, a pleasing one, , 20 

Ransom, 108 

Rationalists, 31 

Redeemed Men, 109-121 

God's gifts to, priceless, 116; guarantees for the 

future, 117; have experienced a great change, 111; 

increasing riches, 118; insured against loss, 117; 

loved of God, 110, 119; new status, 115; old 

status, 114; relation to property, 141; stars, . . . .121 

Reformation, the, 19 

Reformers, 56 

Religious knowledge, three sources of, 25 

Repent, 33, 71 

Retribution, 87 

Restorationism, 79 

Resurrection, 172, 174 

Rewards of heaven, 193 

Richter cited, 17 

Rome, 15, 18 

Saints, Romish, 19 

Samaria, woman of, 97 

Sanctification, 118 

Satan, 58-67 

Authority and power of, 61; Christ opposed to, 



Index. 205 

Page. 
64; enemy of Christ, 58; evil, 61; hateful to 
Christ, 65; not to be ridiculed, 59; opposed to 
Christ, 62 ; personality of, 60 ; to be hated by men, 

67 ; to be overthrown, 63 

Schiller cited, 78 

Scholium on Old Testament, 42 

Scientists inconsistent, 12 

Scotland, 16 

Scriptures, The, 25-43 

Authority of, 30; deeper meaning, 28; foundation 
of teaching, 35 ; ideal life in, 38 ; integrity of, 33 ; 
Jesus loved, 38; men too may love, 41 ; rule of life, 

36 ; sufficiency of, 32 ; without error, 34 

Sea captain, 137 

Second Coming, The, 176-185 

A fact, 177; not certainly far away, 181; not cer- 
tainly near, 181; not same as death, 178; sudden 
and unexpected, 182; time undefined, 180; to be 

longed for, 184 

Shanghai, 137 

Silk-worm, deceased, 69 

Sin, 68-77 

Deceives, 69; is personal, 74; not in body only, 74; 

not mere absence of good, 75 

Sinless perfection, 119 

Sinners, men are, 71, 77 

Sodom, 183 

Solomon, 91 

Stanley, Henry M., 20 

State, from God, 135 

Synagogue schools, 27 

Theism, 85 

Thief on cross, 168 

Third day, 172, 174 

Trade not morally elevating, 19 



206 The Creed of Christ. 

Page. 

Tradition, 30 

Transfiguration, 105-188 

Truth not all discovered yet, 13 

Truth to be vindicated, 88 

umias, ia 

Universalism, 79 

Unprejudiced study commended, 13 

Unworldliness, 127 

Unworthy means of winning men, 146 

Vandals, 18 

Why Study the Creed of Christ, 14-21 

World, dark when Christ came, 15; hostile to the 
kingdom, 137; inclement, 136; meaning of in 

speech of Jesus, 72 ; to be won by believers, 139 

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